[H-verkko] CFP: The Author – Wanted, Dead or Alive

[agricola at utu.fi]

Agricolan artikkelipyyntöihin on lähetetty uusi ilmoitus:
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The Author – Wanted, Dead or Alive
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CALL FOR PAPERS

The Author – Wanted, Dead or Alive
New perspectives on the concept of authorship, 1700-1900
European University Institute (Florence, Italy) • 5-6 June 2017


Supported by the Society for the History of Authorship, Reading & Publishing
(SHARP)
The idea of the author as a singular, semi-mythical figure has come under fire
in the scholarship of the last fifty years. Famously pronounced dead by Roland
Barthes in 1967, the figure of the author has since been the subject of much
debate and revision. Although the initial impulse may have come from scholars of
cultural theory and literary criticism, the challenge has since been taken up by
book historians like Roger Chartier, historians of literature like Gisèle
Sapiro and intellectual historians like Quentin Skinner, who have rethought the
category of authorship in relation to various different historical and spatial
contexts. The author’s acclaimed demise has thus produced important new
perspectives on the printed text and the people and structures surrounding it.
As a result, in both form and content, and indeed in the relationship between
these two, texts are now widely understood as the result of a multi-actor
process, wherein different interests, techniques, social spheres, and
geographical spaces interact. Building on this critical
insight, the aim of this workshop is to give the author a post-mortem of sorts
by bringing together fresh and critical historiographical perspectives on the
concept of authorship, and challenging participants to think in comparative and
transnational frameworks. Ideally, we seek to draw together work from a wide
variety of sub-disciplines, creating a dialogue which connects often-separated
fields such as book history and literary history.


Focussing in particular on the period 1700-1900, which saw an explosion of
literacy and publishing both in the West and beyond, we therefore invite
proposals for papers which enlarge and nuance our understanding of the concept
of authorship by concentrating on examples of variety, agency and meaning. We
especially encourage submissions that focus on the historical significance of
marginal or otherwise ‘forgotten’ authors. This includes: papers
highlighting minority and female authors, or authors of generic and
non-canonical works; research that seeks to examine the authorial or
quasi-authorial roles of the publisher, printer, editor, illustrator,
bookseller, or translator; and work that centres around notions of authorship in
non-European and colonial contexts. We also encourage methodological,
historiographical, and theoretical proposals dealing critically with the notion
of authorship – including its birth, death or troubled adolescence.


Possible additional topics include, but are not limited to:

 ‘Accidental’ authors: writers of texts initially intended for private uses
such as catharsis,remembrance or private entertainment
Authorial agency versus constraining factors such as audience expectations and
genreconventions.
The different facets of authorship and the production of the book in
transnational perspectives.
Processes of presentation of the author, both by themselves, and by others.
The legal frameworks of authorship, including censorship and copyright
conventions.
The commercialisation and marketing of authors, e.g. name recognition, press,
tours.
The uses and meanings of anonymous and pseudonymous authorship, and the status
of the author as a person or a professional apart from their works.

Submissions:


Abstracts of up to 300 words and a short academic CV including full contact
details should be sent to authorshipeui at gmail.com by 31 January 2017.
Participants will receive notification of acceptance no later than 15 February
2017. (If notification is needed earlier, for example for reasons of visa
deadlines, please indicate this on your application.)


Travel bursaries for graduate students: Thanks to funding generously provided by
SHARP and the EUI, a limited number of bursaries are available for graduate
students to cover travel costs. If you would be interested in applying for
travel funding, please indicate this alongside your abstract.

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Ilmoituksen lähetti: Kirsti Salmi-Niklander
<kirsti.salmi-niklander at helsinki.fi>
Ilmoitus vanhentuu: 1.2.2017