Visiting Speaker

'Writers, readers, and other Cinderellas:
repopulating the history of texts'

Dr Daniel Allington, The Open University

Date: Wednesday 4th February 2009
Time: 4-6pm
Venue: T5, Tower Building, University of Dundee (please note the change of venue)
Series: English, School of Humanities, Visiting Speaker seminars

Abstract:

Since the New Criticism (and later, Structuralism and Post-Structuralism), literary scholarship has tended to centre around the interpretation of texts. Recently it has come to be argued that this foregrounding of readings has backgrounded readers, who have tended to be displaced by the ideal 'reader' implied by the text or rhetorically required by the critical interpretation. Much the same could, I will argue, be said for writers - not to mention all the largely-forgotten editors, printers, pundits, booksellers, and other human beings whose actions have made (and continue to make) the world's literate cultures. In this seminar, I will propose that texts should be treated as inseparable from the human struggles in which they have been at stake. Data from several AHRC-funded projects, as well as my own individual research, will be used for illustrative purposes.

All are welcome.

Posted: 15 January 2009