Open Philology: Dealing with Foreign Worlds

Abstract

One moment condemned as hotbeds of racism, colonialism and nationalism, and the next praised as places of origin of cross-cultural conviviality, the modern philologies have long been the subject of heated discussions. Indeed, their conceptual realizations span, in terms of content and ideology, two diametrically opposed positions: a hegemonic-destructive one and a democratic-constructive one. In the history of the discipline, the first position has been brought into focus far more often than the second, so that the modern philologies have come under a kind of ideological general suspicion. Coming to terms with their darker sides is indispensable for the self-reflection of the philological disciplines. However, it is equally indispensable for their self-understanding and further development to reflect on the positive potential they have provided from the beginning and which a “future philology” (Sheldon Pollock) can make fruitful. Under these auspices, the following remarks focus on the founding texts of Romance philology in the second half of the nineteenth century. The aim is to show how a return to the beginnings of this discipline can provide relevant considerations for today’s debates on the much-cited “crisis” of modern philologies.