Dr. Martin Kern

Biography

Martin Kern is a Professor in the Department of East Asian Studies at Princeton University, with a focus on literature, philology, history, religion, and art from ancient to medieval China, with a primary emphasis on poetry. His research explores the composition, reception, and canonization of early literature in a broad sense, particularly the interplay between textual performances and authorial voice in the construction of ancient cultural memory. He addresses topics such as the origins and development of the intellectual and social systems of ancient Chinese textuality and examines the interactions of writing and orality, as well as the materiality of texts and the implications of newly discovered paleographic materials. His major field of study is Chinese poetry, with a keen interest in its theory, aesthetics, and hermeneutic practices, especially in relation to Classic Poetry. Kern also investigates the impact of newly excavated manuscripts on the fundamentals of the Chinese literary tradition and is engaged with questions concerning China's role in global antiquity and world literature, especially in translation and issues related to international Sinology. Additionally, he has begun to explore medieval calligraphy and its cultural paradoxes over the centuries.

Research Interests

Experience