THE WIND THAT MELTS THE ICE: REFLECTIONS ON THE SCALE OF PHILOLOGY.
The global history of philology, like that of writing systems and other technologies, is characterized by diffusion and adaptation. These processes are made more difficult to grasp if we maintain a presentist focus on the Western philological tradition and its deeply Eurocentric legacy. Arguing agai...
| Publicado en: | History & Theory Vol. 64; no. 4; pp. 75 - 92 |
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| Formato: | Artículo |
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Wiley-Blackwell
Dec2025
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| Acceso en línea: | Ver este registro en EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=hlh&AN=190666583&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: hlh uiTerm: 190666583 longDbName: Humanities International Complete uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: jinfo: jid: 00182656 HAT jtl: History & Theory issn: 00182656 maglogo: Y pubinfo: dt: Dec2025 vid: 64 iid: 4 pid: 480 pub: Wiley-Blackwell artinfo: ui: 190666583 10.1111/hith.70006 ppf: 75 ppct: 17 formats: tig: atl: THE WIND THAT MELTS THE ICE: REFLECTIONS ON THE SCALE OF PHILOLOGY. aug: au: Lurie, David B. affil: Columbia University su: Lexicography Poetry (Literary form) Philology Japan China sug: subj: Japan China Lexicography Poetry (Literary form) Philology keyword: commentary intellectual history lexicography philology poetry premodern ab: The global history of philology, like that of writing systems and other technologies, is characterized by diffusion and adaptation. These processes are made more difficult to grasp if we maintain a presentist focus on the Western philological tradition and its deeply Eurocentric legacy. Arguing against those who wish to resolve the problem by abandoning the term "philology" as irredeemably tainted, I propose that we introduce the notion of scale. Heuristically, it is helpful to think in terms of "small‐p" philology, the low‐level quotidian strategies and tools used by students and scholars to solve problems of textual interpretation, and "big‐P" Philology, a larger ideological edifice linked to metahistorical and transhistorical narratives about abstract concepts such as civilization, race, and religious truth. As a first step toward illuminating this issue of scale, this article excavates a highly specific moment of philological scholarship in twelfth‐century Japan and shows how a difficult word from a classical waka poem is explicated through the extension of an existing Chinese exegetical system. The example is taken from the Ōgishō, a pioneering treatise by the Heian period scholar Fujiwara no Kiyosuke (1104–1177). pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: Article src: R language: English refInfo: copyright: @attributes: flag: Y dt: @attributes: year: 2025 holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
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