1

I love German literature, but I am not interested in literary criticism/theory; just in close-reading, by which I mean, "reading while analyzing the grammar, syntax, usages of words, etc."

As my future goal as a researcher, I am thinking of compiling some sort of detailed guidebooks that will help the reader understand how the sentences parse in a systematic fashion; for no one has ever done that, at least not in a detailed, fool-proof kind of way, as far as I know after much research, both in the university library and on the Internet.

What sort of path should I set myself upon to pursue that kind of vision? Is it even a legitimate research goal?

Thank you in advance.

Improve this question
4
  • If I were you, the first step I would take is to ask my (prospective) advisor, professors teaching/researching relevant courses at my school, and other experts I had found on the internet.
    – Yuichiro Fujiwara
    Commented Dec 3, 2014 at 8:55
  • 8
    "for no one has ever done that, at least not in a detailed, fool-proof kind of way" I am rather convinced that this is not true. This seems pretty much exactly what the field of linguistics deals with.
    – xLeitix
    Commented Dec 3, 2014 at 9:44
  • @xLeitix I'm no linguist. But does linguistics publish a guidebook of a particular German literature work as research? Maybe this is not what OP meant, but I took it this way. This might be one of many things linguistics typically deals with, though...
    – Yuichiro Fujiwara
    Commented Dec 3, 2014 at 10:12
  • Let's say I want to publish a guidebook for Kafka's "The Castle." Here, I am talking about line-by-line analysis, every grammatical, semantic pitfall perspicuously elucidated; not just frangments attracting major academic interest.
    – user25070
    Commented Dec 3, 2014 at 10:24

2 Answers 2

Reset to default
4

As a rule of thumb, you cannot possibly know what has and has not been done in a scientific area if you are not part of this scientific area. @xLeitix offered his suggestion about linguistics and his suggestion is good. So, search there, ask specific people about this, read the accompanying textbooks first and then focus on recent papers. It is very hard for an amateur researcher to think of something that has not been done before. It might happen occasionally but it is not that common.

Also you need to consider, that if there is not a scientific area about what you want to research, it might mean (again it is not 100% sure) that what you are suggesting is not that interesting after all. Why e.g., focus on a specific book for example and not on all books written by the same author? What are you hoping to achieve and why does it matter? These are questions that need to be answered before starting the actual research.

So, initially I would try to identify and align my research agenda according to the greater scientific area most close to my scientific interests. Once, you get a good grasp and knowledge of this specific area, you could then try to form your individual research and find what differentiates your work from the rest of the bunch. Identifying the area is a very major step, because otherwise even if your work is seminal you still need to find a journal that would publish your work. And without knowing where to publish it would be very hard to disseminate any scientific work.

Improve this answer
0

detailed guidebooks that will help the reader understand how the sentences parse in a systematic fashion

Detailed guidebooks may be hard to follow unless someone is really motivated to do so. So along with its accuracy and novelty it is good to know if there is anyone in actually interested in reading or using it.

Plus, the problem is general, it is unlikely that no-one have tackled a similar approach before (did you talk to local experts in this field?).

If it is a very systematic thing, you can try to write a computer program doing it - which may, or may not, be useful or insightful contribution.

Improve this answer

You must log in to answer this question.