Under which King, Bezonian? Literary Studies between Hermeneutics and Quantification
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Keywords

quantitative literary history
hermeneutic tradition
comparative literature
research paradigms

How to Cite

Moretti, F. . (2020). Under which King, Bezonian? Literary Studies between Hermeneutics and Quantification. Porównania, 26(1), 315–328. https://doi.org/10.14746/por.2020.1.18

Abstract

What is the relationship between the quantitative literary history of the past twenty years and the older hermeneutic tradition? Answers have typically been of two kinds: for many in the interpretive camp, the two approaches are incompatible, and the newer one has little or no critical value; for most quantitative researchers, they are instead perfectly compatible, and in fact complementary. Here, I will propose a third
possibility, that will emerge step by step from a comparison of how the two strategies work. How they work, literally; in the conviction that practices – what we learn to do by doing, by professional habit, and often without being fully aware of what we are doing – have frequently larger theoretical implications than theoretical statements themselves. In other words: understanding what a research paradigm does, rather
than what it declares it wants to do. This is the plan.

https://doi.org/10.14746/por.2020.1.18
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