Subject: Extended call for papers for ESTS London, 2006
From: Peter Robinson <[email-masked]>
To: [email-masked]
Date: Sun, 14 May 2006 18:02:31 +0100

Dear everyone
Please note that the deadline for this conference has now been  
extended to 31 May 2006.

Textual Scholarship and the Material Book: Comparative Approaches
European Society for Textual Scholarship (ESTS) conference 23-25  
November 2006
Hosted by the Centre for Manuscript and Print Studies (CMPS)
Call for Papers

Textual scholarship has been characterized by change. Just a few  
decades ago there was a belief in bibliographical authority and  
editorial control; the transmission of a text was regarded as a  
continuous process of corruption; the editor's task was to (re) 
construct an 'ideal' text; a desire for origins motivated textual  
scholarship. By current consensus the emphasis is now rather on  
creation, production, process, collaboration; on the material  
manifestations of a work; on multiple rather than single versions. At  
the same time, the importance of reception and book history is  
increasingly being recognized. Yet can one really speak of a paradigm  
shift in textual scholarship? What, if any, continuity exists in the  
methodological, conceptual and theoretical underpinnings of the  
discipline? Or should one rather speak of discontinuity and a  
diversification or fragmentation of methods and frameworks? One may  
think of such opposite approaches and notions as eclectic editing  
versus electronic editing; copy-text versioning and variantenkritik;  
the authority of the text versus the sociology of the text;  
historical bibliography versus the history of the book; philology  
versus genetic criticism. To address these questions, and to look for  
common ground from which to continue the debate, a comparative  
approach to the study of texts and books is necessary.

The purpose of this conference, therefore, is twofold: (1) to  
consider some of these trends and developments in textual scholarship  
across the various national regions and historical periods (from the  
classics to the twenty-first century) in order to investigate the  
circumstances and conditions that continue to bring change; (2) to  
investigate what cross-currents have developed between the various  
sub-disciplines dealing with the study of texts and books in their  
material form (with attention to the relation between textual  
scholarship and book history). Textual scholarship will be taken in  
the widest possible sense to include not only textual editing, but  
any form of textual scholarship that looks at the materiality of  
text, of writing, of reading, and of the book; at the composition,  
production, dissemination, and consumption of literary and other  
verbal and non-verbal texts; at the interaction between texts and  
books, the physical objects (manuscript, codex, CD-Rom) and the signs  
they contain. We want to look at, not at what divides us, but what  
unites us as philologists, editors, librarians, collectors, and  
readers of books and printed materials in any period of history.

It is expected that the above issues are not merely to be dealt with  
so as to construct new theoretical frameworks or revisit old ones,  
but that they should inform new and existing practices, models and  
methodologies in the field. Some guiding questions might be: Are  
philological approaches defunct? Why does intentionality (still)  
count? Is textual scholarship stuck in a humanist tradition? How has  
the responsibility of the editor changed towards the text s/he is  
editing, towards the author, and towards the audiences? How do  
textual scholars recover the past? How can we most effectively  
collect/disseminate textual knowledge? How can we engage readers/ 
students/critics in textual scholarship? What new resources are  
needed? What role do institutions play in textual scholarship? How  
does project funding shape textual studies? How do new developments  
in bibliography and the history of reading contribute to textual  
scholarship? Topics for discussion may include, but are not limited to:
* the material text/book
* access to texts, access to archives
* national traditions and the history of scholarship
* textual scholarship and the history of the book
* textual scholarship and the history of science
* history of reading and 'material' reception
* history of collectors and collections
* authorship and attribution studies
* genetic criticism/genetic editing
* manuscript cultures-old and new
* the use and abuse of stemmatology
* electronic editing/analytical bibliography of electronic texts
* editing non-verbal (music, photography, performance etc.) and non- 
authorial (folklore, myth) works

Proposals of no more than 250 words should be sent to Wim Van Mierlo  
no later than 31 May.

  Please note that at the time of the conference all speakers need to  
be registered members of the Society. Details about membership can be  
found on the ESTS website. The organizing committee consists of: Dr  
Wim Van Mierlo (Institute of English Studies, University of London)  
Professor Warwick Gould (Institute of English Studies, University of  
London) Professor Mike Edwards (Institute of Classical Studies,  
University of London) Professor Dirk Van Hulle (University of  
Antwerp, ESTS board member) Contact: Institute of English Studies  
School of Advanced Study University of London Senate House Malet  
Street London WC1E 7HU United Kingdom e-mail: [email-masked]

Peter Robinson
Institute for Textual Scholarship and Electronic Editing
Elmfield House, Selly Oak  Campus
University of Birmingham
Edgbaston B29 6LG
[email-masked]
p. +44 (0)121 4158441, f. +44 (0) 121 415 8376
www.itsee.bham.ac.uk