Laboratory for Critical Text Editing
The Laboratory for Critical Text Editing groups the philological expertise to carry out our research.
Round tables
This series of round tables, within the framework of LECTIO, is intended as a 'laboratory' to explore, in an experimental way, as it were, the methodological potentialities and limits of textual criticism and text editing. This will not only be done in an interdisciplinary perspective, but also in a transversal one, in terms of language areas and time periods.
Each round table tackles a different topic, which can be of interest not only to editors, but also to anyone interested in texts in general. Three specialists, each with a different background, have been invited to expose their views on the topic, highlighting the problematic points and methodological issues. An open discussion will then follow, enabling the emergence of new ideas.
These round tables are open to every 'lover of the text'. Everyone is cordially invited to reflect on the proposed topics and to participate in the creation of new tracks for tomorrow's scholarship.
Organization: Caroline Macé, An Faems, Stefan Schorn, Pieter De Leemans & Gerd Van Riel
Contact: an.faems@arts.kuleuven.be
Next Round tables
14 May 2012
Collecting fragments in the 21st century (Part I)
In recent years the attitude of scholars towards Greek and Roman authors transmitted in fragmentary form has changed. The optimism of earlier generations that one may be able to reconstruct their works by collecting and combining their 'remains' and, if possible, by supplementing these 'remains' by means of 'Quellenforschung' has given way to a more realistic awareness of our limits. Building on the fundamental contributions by Brunt, Most, Lenfant, Schepens and others, a series of workshops will address various questions raised by fragmentary prose writers such as: What is a fragment? To what extent are we able to establish its degree of authenticity? To what extent is a reconstruction of a lost work possible? What role can 'Quellenforschung' play today? Why should we (not) collect fragments? How should a collection of fragments be organized? Are there fundamental differences between fragments of works that belong to different genres (historiography, oratory, philosophy etc.), and how are they (to be) reflected in the various collections of fragments? What is to be expected of the commentary?
The speakers are invited to contribute new theoretical considerations and to illustrate their views with concrete examples.
- Monica Berti (Università degli Studi di Roma Tor Vergata/Tufts University), Collecting quotations by topic: degrees of preservation and transtextual relations among genres
- Dominique Lenfant (Université de Strasbourg), The study of intermediate authors and its role in the interpretation of historical fragments
- Charlotte Roueché (King's College London), Examining relationships: understanding and expressing citations
- Moderator: Stefan Schorn (KU Leuven)
8 October 2012
Archetypes outside textual scholarship
The concept of ‘archetype’, which is crucial in the Lachmannian theory of text editing, has become highly controversial in philology. It has been dismissed by several schools of philology as being an artificial and pointless accessory of the method of text editing, a kind of Frankenstein of (mostly classical) philology. Nevertheless, it can be argued that the archetype is necessary to the historical understanding of any textual tradition, leaving aside the question whether or not the archetype is then edited. We would like to reflect on the concept of ‘archetype’ in disciplines other than textual criticism: in anthropology, in art history, in iconology, and in biology. Is the concept of ‘archetype’ still operative in those disciplines? How does it function there? Is it controversial as well? Is there in that respect any influence of textual criticism upon those disciplines or vice versa?
- Stavros Lazaris (CNRS UMR 7044, Strasbourg)
- Jamie Tehrani (Durham University)
- Koen Geuten (KU Leuven)
- Moderator: Barbara Baert (KU Leuven)
Archive
Lectures
21 March 2012
Tiziano Dorandi (CNRS Paris), Liber Suda. La traduction latine de la Souda de Robert Grosseteste
5.00 pm. MSI 02.15; Invitation (pdf)
Contact: stefan.schorn@arts.kuleuven.be
Ongoing edition projects
