The Return of Philology: Close Readings of Chinese Texts for the Postmodern Age

Do., 19. bis Fr., 20. Juli 2007

Harnack-Haus, Tagungsstätte der Max-Planck-Gesellschaft

Organisiert von Mareile Flitsch und Erling von Mende, gefördert von der Fritz Thyssen Stiftung [1]

In recent decades, a new generation of sinologists has emerged whose research is primarily philological in terms of methodology. At the same time, this new philology is both informed and empowered by the different frameworks and paradigms which have been proposed by theory-oriented scholarship. Through this innovative approach, Chinese texts of different genres and canons have been increasingly exposed to hermeneutical readings which keep moving back and forth between philology and theory. Paradigms are anchored, refined and limited by the textual work of these modern philologists. Texts and genres, on the other hand, are liberated from their positivist confines in order to become the object of complex analyses enriched by intertextual, interdisciplinary and cross-cultural interpretations. This recent and increasingly important trend of sinology shall be exemplified and elaborated upon in the workshop.