Caption:
The texts in Minima Philologica, “95 Theses on Philology” and “For—Philology,” release philology from institutional fetters, reveal its affinity with the nature of language, and teach us how to practice it on the model of poetry. Poetry is first philology because language routinely moves beyond the categories applied to it. To practice philology is to desire (philein) this frightening excess of language.