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The Meaning of the Prefix “Trans-” and Thinking About Research in Trans-Humanities

Kim, Yeon Soo 1

1이화여자대학교

ABSTRACT

In this article, I try to think about research methods in our trans-humanities agenda by bringing the meaning of the prefix “trans-” into focus. For this purpose, the concepts of “transculturation” and “transculturality” in cultural and literary studies should be analysed. For example, there is the oldest concept of “transculturation,” from the Cuban anthropologist Fernando Ortiz in the 1940s, which was incorporated and further developed within the realm of literary studies by the Urguayan critic Angel Rama in the 1970s, as well as the concept of “transculturation” used by the German philosopher Wolfgang Welsch and the discussions concerning his concept in German cultural and literary studies. On the basis of this paper’s analysis, the meaning of the prefix “trans-” in our trans-humanities agenda can be modified in accordance with cultural and scholarly contexts. The trans-humanities are trans-scholarly, which means that this sort of humanities crosses the boundary between the real world and the academy and has relevance to reality beyond the walls of the university. The boundary between outside reality and the academy is permeable, so the humanities of this sort are communicable and interactive. Additionally, the trans-humanities are transdisciplinary, a point relevant to research methods. In order to research phenomena in the glocal area, the disciplines must be open, communicating and cooperating with other disciplines.

Citation status

* References for papers published after 2023 are currently being built.

This paper was written with support from the National Research Foundation of Korea.