Programme
The Comparative Methodology unit explores methodological questions foundational to comparative analyses between literary sources in the Persian, Hellenistic and Roman periods. The goal of this research unit is to make explicit what is too often only implicit in scholarly comparative work, the underlying justifications and methods which make a comparison “work”. Participants are encouraged to challenge past assumptions about the how and why of comparisons by drawing upon philosophical and phenomenological resources, and additionally, to consider the perceived benefits of the comparative endeavour. Furthermore, comparisons seek to grant new insights into source materials, but how these results are measured in terms of quality has yet to be determined. The Comparative Methodology unit seeks to address these shortcomings by encouraging scholars to think deeply about the means and outcomes of their comparative work, in order to generate new heuristic tools through which comparisons might be more explicitly defined and beneficially utilised.
Keywords:
Comparative Methodology, Biblical Literature, Jewish Literature, Greek Literature, Persian Period, Hellenistic Period, Roman Period, Intercultural Relationships, Contact-Zones, Intellectual Heritage