What is effectual history and its significance for literary reception

Effective history [Wirkungsgeschichte in German] Gadamer argues that history or tradition is not only the past but also a process of realization. History produces effects by conditioning our historical understanding.　An interpreter is subordinated in such a way that one of the objects is already understood in the tradition to which this interpreter belongs. Any understanding is situated in a historical situation and is inevitably biased. Understanding, therefore, is not an act of a subject, but an aspect of the history of effects. There is no such thing as a purely "objective" understanding without any particular perspective. History limits our knowledge, but it also aids the development of our understanding by determining what we can understand.　Thus, there is no more radical rejection of tradition than that advocated by its proponents. Consciousness is affected by history by having a pre-history, and in turn affects history by having a post-history; such a consciousness is called "effectual historical consciousness". History is the unity of history's understanding of it.