Give the Word

Gerhard Richter is a professor of German studies and comparative literature at Brown University. He is the author or editor of numerous books, including Inheriting Walter Benjamin and Afterness: Figures of Following in Modern Thought and Aesthetics. Ann Smock is a professor emerita of French at the University of California, Berkeley. She is the author of two books, including What Is There to Say? (Nebraska, 2003), and has translated several others. An influential theorist, philosopher, and literary critic, Werner Hamacher (1948–2017) was a professor at the University of Frankfurt and founder of its Institute of General and Comparative Literary Studies.

“This is a stunningly original collection of essays-utterly engrossing and compelling. Probing, erudite, elegant, witty, these essays explore the concept of philology at once literally (literally “literally,” that is, to the letter, down to its smallest granules of articulation) and expansively, inviting us to rethink the fundamental categories of existence-language, translation, tradition, genealogy, history, sociability, love, kinship, in short, just about everything. Hamacher’s magnificent Theses could not find a more vibrant afterlife.”-Rebecca Comay, professor of philosophy and comparative literature at the University of Toronto“Werner Hamacher’s 95 Theses on Philology proposes a new radical understanding of philology distinct from its dusty nineteenth-century conception. The eleven responses to his 95 Theses have provided him with an opportunity to comment extensively and in generous detail on the responses they provoked. Hamacher’s lengthy contribution is not only an extraordinary document of scholarly debate but also a superb piece in which he elaborates on the context of his Theses and on their rich theoretical and philosophical ramifications, thus also providing insight into the workings of his own thought.”-Rodolphe GaschÉ, Distinguished Professor and Eugenio Donato Chair of Comparative Literature, University at Buffalo, the State University of New York

• 95 Theses on Philology / 95 Thesen zur PhilologieWerner Hamacher, translated by Catharine DiehlIntroductionGerhard Richter and Ann SmockPart 1. Balances1. Was heißt Lesen?-What Is Called Reading?Gerhard Richter2. Language-Such-That-It’s-SpokenMichÈle Cohen-Halimi, translated by Ann Smock3. 48: [this space intentionally left blank]Jan Plug4. Catch a Wave: Sound, Poetry, PhilologySean GurdPart 2. Times5. Einmal ist Keinmal: On the 76th of Werner Hamacher’s 95 Theses for PhilologyAnn Smock6. Rereading tempus fugitThomas Schestag7. Language on Pause: Hamacher’s Seconds of Celan and DaiveVincent W.J. van Gerven OeiPart 3. Categories8. The Right Not to Complain: A Philology of KinshipAvital “Irony” Ronell9. The Category of PhilologyPeter Fenves10. The PhilÍa of PhilologySusan Bernstein11. Defining the IndefiniteDaniel Heller-RoazenPart 4. Responding to Responses12. What Remains to Be Said: On Twelve and More Ways of Looking at PhilologyWerner Hamacher, translated by Kristina MendicinoContributorsIndex