The Simulated Hermeneutic:
Artificial Intelligence and the Transformation of Literary
Interpretation
Dr. Ghulam Mohammad Khan
ABSTRACT
This paper examines the drastic transformation of
literary interpretation driven by artificial intelligence and
digital materiality. Moving beyond 20th-century theoretical
paradigms, the analysis argues that hermeneutics is becoming a
distributed process involving human readers, algorithmic agents, and
platform infrastructures. Through a longitudinal case study with
educator-peers and a synthesis of contemporary critical theory, the
study identifies key shifts: the rise of AI-generated "simulated
hermeneutics," the construction of algorithmically curated readers
and contexts, and the ethical challenges posed by embedded biases
and eroding textual stability. While recognizing the scalable
analytics of computational tools, the paper concludes that a
sustainable future for literary study requires a critical
symbiosis—an ethically literate practice that leverages
technological capacities while safeguarding the humanistic core of
interpretation.
Keywords: literary interpretation, artificial intelligence, digital
humanities, hermeneutics, algorithmic bias, critical symbiosis,
post-digital, textual analysis.
