This colloquium on writers’ libraries aims at bringing together leading researchers and institutions that take care of the conservation, digitisation and management of writers’ libraries. The intellectual purpose of the colloquium is to exchange information on how different institutions manage their collections of writers’ books, in order to draw up an inventory of common problems and work towards a methodological framework for the solutions. In literary studies, there is a growing awareness of the importance of studying authors’ libraries, since authors are also – and primarily – readers, and their reading affects their writing in various ways. Instead of simply bringing together different scholars who work with different libraries and produce comparisons or compendia of articles, this colloquium tries to pursue the abstracted methodological questions that arise from this first stage and attempts to find a sound methodological approach to managing authors’ libraries.
NOTE: Please note that lunch will not be provided.
PRELIMINARY PROGRAMME
10:00: Coffee
10:15: Dirk Van Hulle: Introduction
10:30-12:30: Methodological Questions regarding the Reconstruction of Virtual and Extant Libraries pre-1900
- Nicholas Cronk and Gillian Pink (University of Oxford, Voltaire Foundation), Voltaire's Library
- Anne Manuel (University of Oxford, Somerville College) and Albert Pionke (University of Alabama), John Stuart Mill's Library
- Christopher Ohge (School of Advanced Study, London), Herman Melville Library
BREAK (Lunch not provided)
14:00-16:00: Methodological Questions regarding the Reconstruction of Virtual and Extant Libraries post-1900
- Anke Jaspers (Karl-Franzens-University of Graz), Thomas Mann's Library
- Georgina Paul (University of Oxford, St Hilda's College), Christa Wolf's Library
- Emily Bell and Dirk Van Hulle (University of Antwerp / University of Oxford), The Libraries of James Joyce and Samuel Beckett
16:00-16:30 Discussion and Closing Remarks
17:15-18:15 Keynote Lecture by Daniel Ferrer at the Ship Street Centre Lecture Hall
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