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At the intersection of the terms “literature” and “archive,” this series establishes a domain of discussion that is fertilized by literary and edition studies, archive theory, archive and cultural studies, and today's archive practice.
Petra Maria Dallinger, Adalbert-Stifter-Institut, Linz, Österreich; Klaus Kastberger, Franz-Nabl-Institut, Graz, Österreich
Literary estates as media formations make knowledge of archives indispensable. Do creative people already view their workshops as future archives? What kinds of interplay is there between archives and literature? And what is the basis for genres such as the archive novel, the blog novel, and docufiction? The contributions by renowned cultural studies scholars in this volume use examples to show how literature and archives encounter one another.
The book discusses various forms of archives. What does it mean when there is only a single archive holder? What about literary estates held in libraries and storage facilities of museum institutions or in administrative archives? The various types of archival institutions differ from one another yet also share parallels and intersections.
While archives have traditionally attracted little publicity, this situation is in flux: things that were hidden away – from precious objects to curiosities – are now being made available not only to scholars but to a broader public audience as well. This volume addresses questions related to the accessibility, representation, and dissemination of institutionally preserved cultural heritage.
Wilhelm Dilthey’s essay Archive für Literatur (1889) remains to this day an important point of reference for questions surrounding literary archives. What is a literary archive, or Nachlass, and according to which principles is it constituted? Who determines which literary legacies are preserved and canonized? And what of aspects of the “writer’s workshop” persists in the new order instituted by the archive?
The "poet’s workshop" is a central imaginary space of literature. What do we imagine when we think about the workspaces of major writers? Does it make sense to speak about the fantasia of the archive, analogous to how Michel Foucault spoke about the fantasia of the library of literature? What is the relationship between the imaginary spaces of writing and the real experience of modes of production?