Philology Seminar 1.

 

Aim of the course

The aim of the course is for students to be able to plan and carry out independent, high-quality philological research related to their own dissertation topic, acquiring comprehensive knowledge of all aspects of the critical processing of Sanskrit or other Indian language texts.

a) Knowledge

Students acquire in-depth, specialized knowledge of all aspects of the philological processing of Sanskrit or other Indian language texts related to their chosen research topic. They become familiar with the latest philological research methods, current issues and debates in international scientific discourse. They acquire detailed knowledge of the manuscript tradition, textual criticism problems, linguistic features and literature of the chosen text corpus. They acquire comprehensive knowledge of the philological tools and sources necessary for their dissertation research.

b) Ability

Students become capable of planning and carrying out independent, high-quality philological research. They will acquire the skills of formulating and solving complex philological problems. They will gain practice in giving scientific lectures, leading professional discussions and formulating constructive criticism. They will be able to professionally present their own research results and prepare international-level publications. They will develop a culture of scientific debate and the ability for interdisciplinary cooperation.

c) Attitude

Students will develop a committed research attitude, which includes scientific precision, critical thinking and intellectual honesty. They will be open to professional criticism and be able to reflect constructively on their own work. They will develop the value of collegial cooperation and a sense of responsible belonging to the scientific community. They will become sensitive to ethical issues in philological research, respect for cultural heritage and the social relevance of scientific work.

d) Autonomy and responsibility

Students become fully independent in planning, implementing and evaluating their own research projects. They make responsible decisions about the choice of philological methods and research strategies. They become capable of independently managing their own research program, creatively solving emerging problems and independently publishing their research results. They take responsibility for their claims, are able to defend their scientific position, and are open to accepting alternative interpretations.

Topics

The topics covered are always aligned with the student's research area.

1. Clarification of the research topic (proving the relevance of the topic, identifying gaps in research history, choosing a methodological approach, formulating preliminary hypotheses)

2. Identification and evaluation of primary sources (identifying relevant texts, mapping manuscripts and printed editions, researching manuscript collections (Indian and European), evaluating digital sources, preliminary comparison of text variants)

3. Secondary iterature research I. (compiling a comprehensive bibliography, exploring the history of the research area, identifying major scientific schools and debates, using bibliographic databases)

4. Text-critical preparations (planning the collation of manuscripts, identifying textual critical problems, planning the critical apparatus)

5. Fundamentals of linguistic analysis (determining the historical context of language, dialectological features, syntactic and morphological features, lexicological issues, metrical and prosodic analysis [if relevant])

6. Interdisciplinary perspectives (related historical sources, religious historical context, archaeological and art historical contributions, digital humanities tools)

Evaluation system

Written and/or oral exam

Literature

Philological methodology

Gumbrecht, Hans Ulrich (2003). The Powers of Philology: Dynamics of Textual Scholarship. Urbana: University of Illinois Press.

Pollock, Sheldon – Elman, Benjamin A. – Chang, Ku-ming Kevin (eds.) (2015). World Philology. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Turner, James (2014). Philology: The Forgotten Origins of the Modern Humanities. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

Pollock, Sheldon (2009). "Future Philology? The Fate of a Soft Science in a Hard World". Critical Inquiry 35(4): 931-961.

Textual Criticism

Greetham, David C. (1994). Textual Scholarship: An Introduction. New York: Garland Publishing.

Trovato, Paolo (2014). Everything You Always Wanted to Know about Lachmann's Method: A Non-Standard Handbook of Genealogical Textual Criticism in the Age of Post-Structuralism, Cladistics, and Copy-Text. Padova: Libreriauniversitaria.it.

Digital philology

Pierazzo, Elena (2015). Digital Scholarly Editing: Theories, Models and Methods. Routledge.

Schreibman, Susan – Siemens, Ray – Unsworth, John (eds.) (2016). A New Companion to Digital Humanities. 2nd edition. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell.