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Protagonists of the ‘philological turn’ have claimed philology to be a self-reflective praxis. The history of modern philology however demonstrates that this can only be understood as a demand. All too often, philological conceptions went hand in glove with a deterministic anthropology. Whereas current research on the nexus between philology and racial thought focus on how biopolitical assumptions could be applied within philological disciplines, the idea of a ‘hard’ anthropological nucleus and a ‘soft’ textual culture referring to it needs to be revised. Because of their methodological potential and cultural strength, European philologies were scientific models up to the second half of the 19th century and relied on the same epistemic assumptions from which ‘modern’ raciological discourses were born. This comes mainly from the relation established since the 17th century between the variety of languages, scripts and textual cultures on the one hand, and rationality on the other. The arguments that stem from this discourse of a challenged universalism were amalgamated with genealogical thought in 19th century philology and an obsession with origins as the biblical narrative faded away. Thus, spiritual or cognitive forms, understood as determining factors in historical evolution, could then be linked to an assumed ‘original’ intellectual or anthropological potentiality. However, raciological conceptualizations have been far from being without alternative. My paper argues that if the return to philology aims to be more than a reaction to the normative loss of textual culture, then the epistemological struggle within the history of philology needs to be reflected in its relevance for any ‘future’ philology.
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Abel-Rémusat Jean-Pierre Essai sur la langue et la littérature chinoises 1811 Paris Treuttel et Wurtz
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Abel-Rémusat Jean-Pierre “Discours sur le génie et les mœurs des peuples orientaux.” Mélanges posthumes d’histoire et de littérature orientales 1843 Paris Imprimerie Royale 221 252
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Auerbach Erich Trask Willard R. Mimesis: The Representation of Reality in Western Literature 1953 Princeton Princeton University Press (Original: Mimesis. Dargestellte Wirklichkeit in der abendländischen Literatur. Tübingen: Francke, 1946).
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Bosse Anke von Bormann Alexander “ ‘Orientalomanie’? Zu Friedrich Schlegels Konzeptionalisierungen von ‘Religion’ und ‘Orient’.” Romantische Religiosität 2005 Würzburg Königshausen und Neumann 225 242
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De Man Paul The Resistance to Theory 1986 Minneapolis University of Minnesota Press
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Derrida Jacques Tort Patrick “Scribble: pouvoir/écrire.” Essai sur les Hiéroglyphes des Égyptiens, où l’on voit l’Origine et le Progrès du Langage et de l’Écriture, l’Antiquité des Sciences en Égypte et l’Origine du Culte des Animaux 1977 Paris Aubier Montaigne 5 43 Preface to Warburton, William (Reprint of the translation by Léonard de Malpeines from 1744)
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Destutt de Tracy Antoine Louis Claude Élémens d’idéologie 1803 Seconde partie: Grammaire Paris Courcier
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Ette Ottmar Weltbewußtsein: Alexander von Humboldt und das unvollendete Projekt einer anderen Moderne 2002 Weilerswist Velbrück
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Ette Ottmar & Kutzinski Vera M. von Humboldt Alexander “Inventories and Inventions: Alexander von Humboldt’s Cuban Landscapes.” Political Essay on the Island of Cuba 2011 Chicago University of Chicago Press vii xxiii A critical edition edited by Vera M. Kutzinski and Ottmar Ette
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Geulen Christian Geschichte des Rassismus 2007 Munich Beck
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Gumbrecht Hans Ulrich Production of Presence: What Meaning Cannot Convey 2004 Stanford Stanford University Press
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Gumbrecht Hans Ulrich The Powers of Philology: Dynamics of Textual Scholarship 2003 Urbana University of Illinois Press
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Harpham Geoffrey Galt “Roots, Races and the Return to Philology.” Representations 106 2009 34 62
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Hausmann Frank-Rutger “Vom Strudel der Ereignisse verschlungen”: Deutsche Romanistik im “Dritten Reich.” 2000 Frankfurt/Main Klostermann
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Hausmann Frank-Rutger Anglistik und Amerikanistik im “Dritten Reich.” 2003 Frankfurt/Main Klostermann
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Hegel Georg W.F. Enzyklopädie der philosophischen Wissenschaften im Grundrisse Dritter Teil: Die Philosophie des Geistes: Mit den mündlichen Zusätzen [1830] 1986 New edition Fankfurt/Main Suhrkamp (=Hegel Werke 10)
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Hutton Christopher M. Linguistics and the Third Reich: Mother-tongue Fascism, Race and the Science of Language 1999 London Routledge
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Hutton Christopher M. Race and the Third Reich: Linguistics, Racial Anthropology and Genetics in the Dialectic of Volk 2005 Cambridge, MA Polity Press
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Kluge Friedrich Seebold Elmar Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache [1883] 2002 24th edition Berlin De Gruyter
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Lamarck Jean-Baptiste de Philosophie zoologique ou exposition des considérations relatives à l’histoire naturelle des animaux; à la diversité de leur organisation et des facultés qu’ils en obtiennent [1809] 1994 Paris Flammarion Présentations et notes par André Pichot
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Lepper Marcel Philologie zur Einführung 2012 Hamburg Junius
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Lifschitz Avi Language and Enlightenment: The Berlin Debates of the Eighteenth Century 2012 Oxford Oxford University Press
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Lüsebrink Hans-Jürgen Popkin Jeremy D. & Popkin Richard H. “Grégoire and the Anthropology of Emancipation.” The Abbé Grégoire and His World 2000 Dordrecht Kluwer 1 12
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Marchand Suzanne L. German Orientalism in the Age of Empire: Religion, Race and Scholarship 2009 Washington D.C. Cambridge University Press/German Historical Institute
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McGetchin Douglas T. , Park Peter K.J. & SarDesai Damodar Sanskrit and “Orientalism”: Indology and Comparative Linguistics in Germany (1750-1958) 2004 New Delhi Manohar
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Memmi Albert L’Homme dominé: Le Noir—Le Colonisé—Le Juif—Le prolétaire—La femme—Le domestique 1968 Paris Gallimard
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Messling Markus Pariser Orientlektüren: Zu Wilhelm von Humboldts Theorie der Schrift Nebst der Erstedition des Briefwechsels zwischen Wilhelm von Humboldt und Jean-François Champollion le jeune (1824-1827) 2008 Paderborn Schöningh
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Messling Markus Loprieno Antonio, Salis Carsten Knigge & Mersmann Birgit “Schrifttheorie als Zivilisationstheorie: (Ent-)Historisierungsformen der Bildlichkeit im europäischen Schriftdiskurs um 1800.” Bild–Macht–Schrift: Schriftkulturen in bildkritischer Perspektive 2011 Weilerswist Velbrück 243 269
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Messling Markus “Representation and Power: Jean-Pierre Abel-Rémusat’s Critical Philology.” Journal of Oriental Studies 44 2011 1 23
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Messling Markus “Philologie et racisme: A propos de l’historicité dans les sciences des langues et des textes.” Annales. Histoire, Sciences sociales 67 2012 153 182 [English version available: “Philology and Racism: On Historicity in the Sciences of Language and Text,” http://www.cairn.info/revue-annales-english-2012-1.ht. Accessed February 17, 2015]
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Messling Markus Tintemann Ute & Trabant Jürgen “L’Homme? Destruktion des Menschen in der Humboldt-Rezeption bei Gobineau.” Wilhelm von Humboldt: Universalität und Individualität 2012 Munich Fink 183 208
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Messling Markus Messling Markus & Ette Ottmar “Text und Bestimmung: Determinismus und Rassenlogik in der Philologie.” Wort Macht Stamm: Rassismus und Determinismus in der Philologie (18./19. Jh.) 2013 Munich Fink 31 53
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Messling Markus Olender Maurice “Einleitung.” Die Sprachen des Paradieses: Religion, Rassentheorie und Textkultur 2013 Berlin Kulturverlag Kadmos 7 16
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Messling Markus Moussa Sarga “La langue du progrès: August Schleicher, l’hégélianisme et le tournant biologique dans la théorie de la civilisation.” Le xixe siècle et ses langues (Special issue, Société des études romantiques et dix-neuvièmistes en ligne, 2013, online available at http://etudes-romantiques.ish-lyon.cnrs.fr/wa_files/Langues-Messling.pd., Accessed February 17, 2015)
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Messling Markus & Ette Ottmar Wort Macht Stamm: Rassismus und Determinismus in der Philologie (18./19. Jh.) 2013 Munich Fink
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Moussa Sarga L’idée de “race” dans les sciences humaines et la littérature (xviiie et xixe siècles) 2003 Paris L’Harmattan
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Olender Maurice Les Langues du Paradis: Aryens et sémites: un couple providentiel 1989 Paris Gallimard/Le Seuil
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Olender Maurice The Languages of Paradise: Race, Religion and Philology in the Nineteenth Century 1992 Cambridge/MA Harvard University Press
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Olender Maurice Race sans histoire 2009 Revised edition Paris Le Seuil
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Olender Maurice Race and Erudition 2009 Cambridge/MA Harvard University Press
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Olender Maurice Die Sprachen des Paradieses: Religion, Rassentheorie und Textkultur 2013 Revised edition Berlin Kulturverlag Kadmos edited and foreworded by Markus Messling, translated from the French by Peter D. Krumme, with the preface to the first edition by Jean-Pierre Vernant and an essay by Jean Starobinski
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Olender Maurice Le racisme: mythes et sciences. Pour Léon Poliakov 1981 Bruxelles Éditions Complexe
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Park Peter K.J. McGetchin Douglas T., Park Peter K.J. & SarDesai Damodar “A Catholic Apologist in a Pantheistic World: New Approaches to Friedrich Schlegel.” Sanskrit and “Orientalism”: Indology and Comparative Linguistics in Germany (1750-1958) 2004 New Delhi Manohar 83 106
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Paul Hermann Deutsches Wörterbuch: Bedeutungsgeschichte und Aufbau unseres Wortschatzes 2002 Tübingen Niemeyer 10th revised and enlarged ed. by Helmut Henne, Heidrun Kämper and Georg Objartel
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Pille René-Marc Cluet Marc “À la fracture du classicisme et du romantisme: l’Inde, sujet de discorde entre Goethe et Friedrich Schlegel.” La fascination de l’Inde en Allemagne 1800-1933 2004 Rennes Presses universitaires de Rennes 25 45
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Pollock Sheldon “Future Philology? The Fate of a Soft Science in a Hard World.” Critical Inquiry 35 2009 931 961
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Rabault-Feuerhahn Pascale L’archive des origines: Sanskrit, philologie, anthropologie dans l’Allemagne du xixe siècle 2008 Paris Cerf Préface de Charles Malamoud
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Régnier Philippe Raciologiques: Littératures—arts—sciences—histoire Romantisme. Revue du dix-neuvième siècle 130 2005
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Said Edward W. Humanism and Democratic Criticism 2004 New York Palgrave Macmillan
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Schlegel Friedrich von Anstett Jean-Jacques Philosophie der Geschichte [1828] Kritische Friedrich-Schlegel-Ausgabe 1971 volume 9 Munich, Paderborn, Vienna Schöningh In achtzehn Vorlesungen gehalten zu Wien im Jahre 1828
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Schleicher August Die Darwinsche Theorie und die Sprachwissenschaft: Offenes Sendschreiben an Herrn Dr. Ernst Häckel, a.o. Professor der Zoologie und Director des zoologischen Museum an der Universität Jena 1863 Weimar Böhlau (Reprint in Sprachwissenschaft des 19. Jahrhunderts, ed. by Hans Helmut Christmann, 85-105. Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, 1977)
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Schleicher August Maher J. Peter “On the Significance of Language for the Natural History of Man.” Linguistics and Evolutionary Theory: three essays, by August Schleicher, Ernst Haeckel and Wilhelm Bleek 1983 Amsterdam Benjamins 73 82 edited by Konrad Koerner, with an introduction by J. Peter Maher (Orig. Über die Bedeutung der Sprache für die Naturgeschichte des Menschen. Weimar: Böhlau, 1865)
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Trabant Jürgen Der Gallische Herkules: Über Sprache und Politik in Frankreich und Deutschland 2002 Tübingen, Basel A. Francke
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Trabant Jürgen Mithridates im Paradies: Kleine Geschichte des Sprachdenkens 2003 Munich Beck
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Trautmann-Waller Céline Paligot Carole Reynaud “Langue, peuple, race, nation: Usages de la notion de race, frontières disciplinaires et enjeux politiques chez les philologues en France et en Allemagne durant la deuxième moitié du xixe siècle.” Tous les hommes sont-ils égaux? Histoire comparée des pensées raciales (1860-1930) 2009 Munich Oldenbourg 81 97
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Tzoref-Ashkenasi Chen McGetchin, Park & SarDesai “The Nationalist Aspect of Friedrich Schlegel’s On the Language and Wisdom of the Indians.” Sanskrit and “Orientalism.” 107 130
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Warburton William Essai sur les Hiéroglyphes des Égyptiens, où l’on voit l’Origine et le Progrès du Langage et de l’Écriture, l’Antiquité des Sciences en Egypte et l’Origine du culte des Animaux [1744] 1977 Paris Aubier Montaigne edition and notes by Patrick Tort (Reprint of the translation by Léonard de Malpeines)
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Search for other papers by Markus Messling in
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Protagonists of the ‘philological turn’ have claimed philology to be a self-reflective praxis. The history of modern philology however demonstrates that this can only be understood as a demand. All too often, philological conceptions went hand in glove with a deterministic anthropology. Whereas current research on the nexus between philology and racial thought focus on how biopolitical assumptions could be applied within philological disciplines, the idea of a ‘hard’ anthropological nucleus and a ‘soft’ textual culture referring to it needs to be revised. Because of their methodological potential and cultural strength, European philologies were scientific models up to the second half of the 19th century and relied on the same epistemic assumptions from which ‘modern’ raciological discourses were born. This comes mainly from the relation established since the 17th century between the variety of languages, scripts and textual cultures on the one hand, and rationality on the other. The arguments that stem from this discourse of a challenged universalism were amalgamated with genealogical thought in 19th century philology and an obsession with origins as the biblical narrative faded away. Thus, spiritual or cognitive forms, understood as determining factors in historical evolution, could then be linked to an assumed ‘original’ intellectual or anthropological potentiality. However, raciological conceptualizations have been far from being without alternative. My paper argues that if the return to philology aims to be more than a reaction to the normative loss of textual culture, then the epistemological struggle within the history of philology needs to be reflected in its relevance for any ‘future’ philology.
| All Time | Past 365 days | Past 30 Days | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Abstract Views | 650 | 238 | 68 |
| Full Text Views | 64 | 8 | 1 |
| PDF Views & Downloads | 117 | 31 | 3 |