Projekt Area A: Paratexts
Project area A examines textual forms that exhibit physical and/or content-related dependencies on a main text. The relationship between paratext and the main text is a variable one: dependent elements can be integrated as part of the main text in the course of its life, while individual elements of the main piece of writing can become paratexts. As a written medium, manuscripts favour such flexible divisions and inclusions, particularly the process of transmission by copying. The project area therefore investigates reciprocity of this kind particularly in relation to the characteristics of specific manuscript cultures.
In a systematic way, three basic functions in terms of organising knowledge in manuscripts may be identified: a) when used as a means of establishing a sense of order, paratexts enable texts to be structured in line with different ideas and needs, b) in the form of commentary, they supplement or refine the subject matter described in the main text, and c) they document or regulate the knowledge imparted in manuscripts and the way in which the material support is dealt with. In addition to these points, a series of cultural and historical aspects are of interest that can be examined with the aid of paratexts, such as media differentiation, communication in knowledge traditions, and questions concerning the restriction of knowledge. The sub-projects that investigate these phenomena focus on different aspects of them as well as being linked to parallel questions addressed by the other project areas.
A01
Means of Knowledge: Paratexts in Buddhist Manuscripts of Medieval Japan (12th-17th century)
During Japan's medieval period (12th-17th century), the knowledge that developed and was distributed within Buddhist schools or groups of scholars, the nobles of the court or the provincial gentry, had the tendency to be handled quite restrictively. This sub-project will examine this aspect as it relates to the primary textual medium of the time, i.e. manuscripts. By examining manuscript paratexts (such as colophons, glosses or titles), above all those of the Buddhist esoteric tradition, we will elaborate and reconstruct how knowledge was controlled or made accessible, also with regard to the social forms of organization behind these activities.
Principal Investigator: Jörg B. Quenzer
Research Associates: Heidi Buck-Albulet (2014-2015), Meike Zimmermann (2011-2014)
A02
Organization of Knowledge Through Paratexts: The Donglin Manuscripts
This sub-project will study the function of paratexts in the organization of knowledge, focussing on a group of manuscripts of a 17th-century scholarly circle in China. The manuscripts, located today in libraries in southern China, will first be classified according to their form and content. Then the process of the organization of knowledge will be analyzed and described by means of philological and scientific methods.
Principal Investigator: Kai Vogelsang
Research Associates: Hang LIN (2013-2015), Tomoyuki NAGATA (2011-2013)
A03
Organization of Historical Knowledge in Tai Lü Manuscripts: The Paratextual Sphere of a Recently Revived Manuscript Culture
In this sub-project, the organization of historical and cultural knowledge in the historiographical manuscripts of the recently revived manuscript culture of the Tai Lü in the upper Mekong Valley will be investigated. This will be done by comparing the corpora from two adjacent regions (Sipsòng Panna/Yunnan und Müang Sing/Laos). A systematic analysis will be undertaken of how this knowledge is organized as is reflected in the paratexts, such as colophons, prefaces and postscripts, as well as in headings and other visual elements structuring the texts.
Principal Investigator: Volker Grabowsky
Research Associate: Apiradee Techasiriwan
A04
The Paratextual Field of Old Tamil Poetic and Learned Traditions: Ways to Lord Murukaṉ – Verses, Glosses and Commentaries around an Old-Tamil Hymn | The Words a Poet looks for – Tamil Glosses to a Sanskrit Poetic Thesaurus
The Tirumurukāṟṟuppaṭai (“Showing the Way to God Murukaṉ”), a short devotional hymn in old Tamil, is singular in that it has found entry not only into the earliest transmitted literary corpus of Classical Tamil, the so-called Caṅkam corpus (beginning of the Common Era), but also into the Tamil sacred canon of Śaiva scriptures, the twelve Tirumuṟais (compiled in the 12th century). What is more, it is still today a popular text of Murukaṉ devotion. Accordingly, its surviving manuscripts are numerous and diverse. This sub-project will investigate the ways in which paratexts have structured and are reflected in the various processes of transmission.
Principal Investigator: Eva Wilden
Research Associates: Giovanni Ciotti (2013-2015), Emmanuel Francis (2011-2013)
A05
Writing and Reading Paratexts: Cognitive Layers in West African Islamic Manuscripts
The scribes of the Qur’anic manuscripts written in the West African Borno Sultanate in the 17th to 19th centuries developed a complex system of glossing the main Qur’an text in vernacular Old Kanembu. These paratexts point to the functional dimensions of the manuscripts. Potentially, we may reconstruct who the users were, how they learned and performed the main text, and whether voiced and silent reading coexisted.
The aims of the project are twofold. First, it will answer the cognitive question of how the Borno manuscripts influenced the acquisition and processing of the written language. Second, it will compare the linguistic environment of Old Kanembu with those of other West African languages attested on the margins of Islamic manuscripts – such as Hausa, Fulfulde, Songhay, and Bambara – in order to understand regional differences in creating and processing paratexts.
Principal Investigator: Dmitry Bondarev
Research Associate: Darya Ogorodnikova
A06
On the edge of a tradition: paratexts in 19th-century Malay manuscripts
The advent of lithographic printing and the ongoing monetization of the indigenous society in the Malay world in the course of the 19th century had profound implications for the manuscript culture and the attitude of people towards manuscripts, their production and consumption. This research intends to map and investigate such changes by examining paratextual elements found in the colophons and margins of Malay manuscripts. It is hypothesized that manuscripts became valuable objects that were privately owned and containing texts that were silently read by individuals rather than being part of an anonymous tradition in which texts were recited and communally enjoyed.
Principal Investigator: Jan van der Putten
Research Associate: Siti Nurliyana Binte Taha