tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6641738716446631837.post2607173780053502013..comments2023-08-27T12:35:12.308+02:00Comments on sanscrite cogitare, sanscrite loqui: Typology of studentselisa freschihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17068583874519657894noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6641738716446631837.post-73412683194139178612011-12-13T09:44:07.880+01:002011-12-13T09:44:07.880+01:00Dear Anonymous reader,
thank you for this interes...Dear Anonymous reader,<br /><br />thank you for this interesting comment. In fact it is so interesting that I ended up writing a whole post on it (http://elisafreschi.blogspot.com/2011/12/what-do-we-have-to-impose-on-students.html)!elisa freschihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17068583874519657894noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6641738716446631837.post-51466456410609879952011-12-13T08:42:07.850+01:002011-12-13T08:42:07.850+01:00This is a very interesting observation. I hope ot...This is a very interesting observation. I hope others will have someting to say that may cast further light. Personally, not long after I began writing my PhD on the Mahabharata, I finally realized that the reason I had always found academia so boring, and therefore difficult, was because I had completely failed to perceive and understand the esentially historical and philological approach of the academic study of sanskrit literature. In short, I found out the hard way that, surprise surprise, the fussy philological obsession with reconstructing the history of the composition of a text had nothing whatsoever to do with poetry or any of the beauties that had drawn me to sanskrit poetry and epic. My error had a lot to do with our time's overvaluation of the PhD, and my ignorance of other ways to get close to sanskrit and India. So far as language goes, I am reckoned an excellent sanskritist, but do find that the academic method of studying the language and its texts (rather than reading them, in a more natural sense of the word) rather misses the point, and my compulsion to make active use of the language, written and spoken, which evidently seems so pointless to most indologists, confirms the same gulf between my and the academic mentality. The same sad story of error and disillusionment is probably shared by many or most of the non-philological, non-philosophical students you speak of.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com