The Potential of World Philology

Journal of the History of Ideas

in which I review three books: Philology: The Forgotten Origins of the Modern Humanities by James Turner; World Philology edited by Sheldon Pollock, Benjamin A. Elman, and Ku-ming Kevin Chang; and Minima Philologica by Werner Hamacher

The Future of Philology: Proceedings of the 11th Annual Columbia University German Graduate Student Conference. Edited by Hannes Bajohr, Benjamin Dorvel, Vincent Hessling, and Tabea Weitz, 2014

1990

As the Byzantinist Ihor Ševčenko once observed, "Philology is constituting and interpreting the texts that have come down to us. It is a narrow thing, but without it nothing else is possible." This definition accords with Saussure's succinct description of the mission of philology: "especially to correct, interpret, and comment upon the texts." Philology is not just a grand etymological or lexicographical enterprise. It also involves restoring to works as much of their original life and nuances as we can manage. To read the written records of bygone civilizations correctly requires knowledge of cultural history in a broad sense: of folklore, legends, laws, and customs. Philology also encompasses the forms in which texts express their messages, and thus it includes stylistics, metrics, and similar studies. On Philology brings together the papers delivered at a 1988 conference at Harvard University's Center for Literary and Cultural Studies. The topic "What is Philology?" drew an interdisciplinary audience whose main fields of research ran the gamut from ancient Indo-European languages to African-American literature, signaling a certain sense of urgency about a seemingly narrow subject. These papers reveal that the role of philology is more important than ever. At a time when literature in printed form has taken a back seat to television, film, and music, it is crucial that scholars be able to articulate why students and colleagues should care about the books with which they work. Just as knowledge will be lost if philological standards decline, so too will fields of study die if their representatives cannot find meaning for today's readers. On Philology will be of interest not only to students of philology but also to anyone working in the fields of hermeneutics, literature, and communication.

Intellectual History Review, 2015

Collection of Articles on the Essence of Modern Philological Research: discourse analysis and text linguistics (Contributors: David Lodge, Margaret Drabble, Olga Alexandrova, Natalia Gvishini et al. Edited by Marklen Konurbaev

This book retraces the formation of modern English Studies by departing from philological scholarship along two lines: in terms of institutional histories and in terms of the separation of literary criticism and linguistics. It is argued that the full potential of the discipline’s global scope and pluralistic formation can only be realized by departing further from philology rather than returning to it – and that this is possible only by engaging with philology rather than by forgetting it. Part 1 outlines the complexities and coherent features of philological scholarship. Part 2 examines historical accounts of the discipline’s moves away from philology in several institutional contexts (UK, USA, India, post-1990 EU). Part 3 explores the gradual bifurcation of English linguistics and literary studies, departing concurrently from philology and from each other.

Journal of the History of Ideas Blog, 2015

Florilegium, 2015

[for special issue, "Rethinking Philology: Twenty-Five Years after The New Philology"] In North American academia, the word ‘philology’ pulls in two directions—toward a broad, idealist sense corresponding to the roots philia and logos and toward a narrower conception of ‘mere’ philology, a historicist subdiscipline centered on etymology and textual editing. This essay examines the role of ‘philology’ before, during, and beyond the period known as the ‘linguistic turn,’ with special focus on The New Philology. Against the many invocations of ‘philology’ pitting the lofty ideal against fallen disciplinary practice, I argue for the institutional reelaboration of philological study in the present.

The Future of Philology. Proceedings of the 11th Annual Columbia University German Graduate Student Conference, 2014

With reference to the increasing self-reflection of the way we read now, this paper opts for three different—yet associated—modes of a textual reading from whose point of view philological questions could be posed: interpretation, experience, and knowledge. Modeled as the geometric figure of a triangle, the phenomenon of literature may be seen to consist of three angles that constitute its concrete design: the textual composition of a fixed matrix of words, a performative adjustment to the recipient, and the constitution of historical contexts. From such a phenomenological perspective, the difference between depth and surface of a literary work of art seems to be in fact a superficial one because any textual significance is only manifest through its appearance. Depth, which is what remains unseen at a first glance, is explored by looking at the object more closely. It could also be described as yet another part of the same object’s surface. Beyond that, any philological reading is guided by scientific discourses. It may be defined, therefore, as a reproduction that opens the fundamental aspects of literature in various ways by investigating its basic and complex structure. The following paper will focus on three recent approaches to philology: the hermeneutic theory of Günther Figal in his book "Gegenständlichkeit," Hans Ulrich Gumbrecht’s exploration of the "Powers of Philology," and the lecture about the "Promises of Philology" held by Peter-André Alt. The practices of philology may be critically examined through such a description of philological interpretation, experience, and knowledge.