Final conference of COST Action IS0901
Women Writers In History
FEMALE AUTHORSHIP IN EUROPE:
NETWORKS AND OBSTACLES.
This closing conference will be held 19-21 June 2013 at Huygens ING, The Hague (Grant Holder of the Action), in the Tesselschade room.
Aim of the conference in The Hague will be to show what has been achieved over these four years, on the level of:
- New knowledge about the role of women authors in Europe, during the centuries until the early 20th ;
- Conception and development of new tools allowing for the analysis of new data found by using sources not yet often consulted (new sources);
- New collaborations created thanks to the COST-WWIH connections developed during this period (leading to new networks).
This final conference will present the history (see also here) as well as the future of the collaborative network which has been constituting itself as a COST Action, and very successfully functioning as such. Thanks to COST we have been able to create possibilities for future and more advanced research in the field of women’s authorship from the Middle Ages over the centuries until the early 20th century.
Overview of the program content (provisional)
Tuesday, 18 June 2013
Dinner for those colleagues arriving in the afternoon at 19.00 (name of restaurant to be communicated). Please inform the organisers.
Wednesday, 19 June 2013
9.00
Registration
9.15
- Lex Heerma van Voss (director Huygens ING):
- Revealing Dutch and European women authors
- Suzan van Dijk (Chair COST-WWIH):
- Welcome
9.30-11.30. Session 1:
“Dominating” languages and their “female” influence in Europe
We will start by focusing on the literature/languages that usually are most studied, and often referred to as representing “European” literature. Yet, we will also situate them in their transnational, and female, context: French, English and German women authors, as groups, have been much more internationally successful than we are often aware of, and these three languages – vehicles for international communication – have often played particular roles for women.
1.
- Presence of Anglophone women authors in Europe
- Tanja Badali?, Astrid Kulsdom, Lucyna Marzec, Marie Nedregotten Sørbø:
- Anglophone women authors as received in four European countries (19th century)
- Tanja Badali?, Astrid Kulsdom, Lucyna Marzec, Marie Nedregotten Sørbø:
2.
- German women’s writing received all over Europe: the case of Eugénie Marlitt
- Katja Mihurko-Poniž, Ursula Stohler, Zsuzsanna Varga:
- German women authors received in smaller language communities: the case of Eugénie Marlitt in the Czech lands, Hungary and Slovenia in the 19th and early 20th centuries
- Katja Mihurko-Poniž, Ursula Stohler, Zsuzsanna Varga:
3.
- French as a “female” language – for queens and other women writers (18th – 19th century): Christina of Sweden, Catherine the Great, Sophie of the Netherlands, Carmen Sylva, …
- Jelena Bakic, Isabel Lousada, Ramona Mihaila, Michaela Mudure, Efstratia Oktapoda, Suzan van Dijk:
- French : a women’s language ? Or a question of class ?
- Jelena Bakic, Isabel Lousada, Ramona Mihaila, Michaela Mudure, Efstratia Oktapoda, Suzan van Dijk:
Discussion
11.15
Coffee
11.45-13.00. Session 2:
Circulation of women and their writings
We then will give an impression of the ways in which women’s writings circulated in earlier periods – not always in printed form – and also with the help of the authors “circulating” themselves through different European countries.
4.
- Manuscript circulation of women’s texts in the early modern period – writings by English, Portuguese, Spanish women
- Vanda Anastacio, Nieves Baranda, Marie-Louise Coolahan:
- Early Modern Manuscript Culture and the Reception of Women’s Writing
- Vanda Anastacio, Nieves Baranda, Marie-Louise Coolahan:
5.
Discussion
13.00
Lunch
On show: manuscript text and letter by Isabelle de Charrière, which had been apparently lost, but were recently re-discovered by Hein Jongbloed (National Archives)
14.00-16.00.Session 3:
Theory and practice
We also want to show how we have been and are trying to find our way while coming from more traditional approaches, and seeing the importance of transforming theory into the practice of the most appropriate and effective digital tools. Testing them, preferably with students, and comparing our own use to those in similar projects has been an essential part of our experience.
6.
- Reflections about the theoretical framework at the basis of the present and future digital infrastructure, and of future research projects, such as this one
7.
- The international reception of women's writing compared to reception questions more generally
- Elke Brems, Hester Meuleman, Orsi Rethelyi, Ton van Kalmthout:
- Two different approaches to the transnational circulation of literature: WWIH and CODL
- Elke Brems, Hester Meuleman, Orsi Rethelyi, Ton van Kalmthout:
8.
- Reporting about experiences in research and teaching
- Jenny Bergenmar, Lucyna Marzec, Amelia Sanz:
- Learning to hack the Literary History – teaching Transnational Women’s Writing Digitally
- Jenny Bergenmar, Lucyna Marzec, Amelia Sanz:
Discussion
16.00
- (for MC core group members)
- Core group meeting (agenda to follow) in Deken room
- (for MC core group members)
- (for other participants)
- Visit to the Museum of Dutch Literary History, in particular the Writers' Gallery (same building)
- (for other participants)
17.15–18.30. Opening of two temporary exhibitions
- Aad Meinderts (director Museum of Dutch Literary History):
- Welcome
- Anne-Birgitte Rønning:
- “Female Robinsonades: adventures of shipwreck and good behavior”
- Exhibition of the Museum of Dutch Literary History:
- "Additional Dutch women writers: new portraits for the Gallery"
- Exhibition of the Royal Library:
- "Books by 19th- and early 20th-century women, entering the KB collection now"
18.30
Drinks and buffet
Thursday, 20 June 2013
9.00
Registration
9.30-11.00. Session 4:
Nations, cultures, women authors
We then will consider the geographical scope of the networks we are studying: for the first time in our field, effort has now been made to really include any European country. This is quite a challenge; first, because the amount of preparatory work carried out in each country often greatly varies, and second, because during the periods researched the understanding from one country to another, even between women and in spite of potential gender solidarity, was in some cases complex or even completely absent. Image building played an important role here, which can in particular be shown in the « connections » between women writers from western and eastern parts of Europe. Even so, in certain European centers, female authors from different parts of the continent met and exchanged directly: the role of centers like these will be discussed.
9.
- Women authors from the East receiving the West and reflecting Orientalisms
- Nadezhda Alexandrova, Katerina Dalakoura, Efstratia Oktapoda, Senem Timuroglu:
- East-West and the politics of location: receiving West (re)discovering Orient
- Nadezhda Alexandrova, Katerina Dalakoura, Efstratia Oktapoda, Senem Timuroglu:
10.
- Women authors connecting to each other at particular “meeting places”, such as Paris, Zürich, Prague, Istanbul (?) and others
- Corinne Fournier Kiss, Alenka Jensterle-Dolezalova, Zofia Taraj?o-Lipowska:
- Prague as a cultural center for Slav women writers
- Corinne Fournier Kiss, Alenka Jensterle-Dolezalova, Zofia Taraj?o-Lipowska:
Discussion
11.00
Coffee
11.30-13.00. Session 5:
Big corpuses and networks (including male and female authors)
Using networks can provide a solution to several of the problems and obstacles we encounter in our field. Many of those obstacles are similar in different countries, and working together provides important practical help. But many of “our” authors were also “networking” themselves. They were not the isolated cases they may seem: they knew and read each other, or knew and read about each other (without necessarily agreeing with each other…). Present electronic tools can do justice to these connections, and indeed make visible a European female literary field. These tools can again be connected, so that also can be visualized women’s connections to male authors, and women’s place in the larger literary field taken as a whole.
11.
- The possibility of comparing (for the 19th century) the whole national novelistic production as opposed to translations from abroad; “male” novels as opposed to “female”.
- Toos Streng, Ton van Kalmthout:
- Comparing corpuses
- Toos Streng, Ton van Kalmthout:
12.
- New developments thanks to reflection during the COST-WWIH Action.
- Gertjan Filarski:
- (to follow)
- Gertjan Filarski:
Discussion
13.00
Lunch
On show: manuscript text and letter by Isabelle de Charrière, which had been apparently lost, but were recently re-discovered by Hein Jongbloed (National Archives)
14.30-17.00. Session 6:
Evaluating the COST-WWIH Action
During this meeting we will also reflect on the importance of our Action for participants, as well as for colleagues who are not members. What about our aims formulated at the beginning of the collaboration? What has been realized until now? What will be done in the research projects which have been generated?
13.
- Reflections about our long-term objective: gendered historiography of literature
and
- Short presentations by COST-WWIH MC core group members, addressing the COST evaluation panel
17.00
Visit of the Damesleesmuseum, The Hague (inscription needed!), guided by Action member Lizet Duyvendak, author of a dissertation about this institution, which has played an important role for the reception of late 19th- and early 20th-century Dutch and foreign women's writing.
20.00
Conference dinner
Friday, 21 June 2013
9.00
Registration
9.30-11.00. Session 7:
Using large-scale approaches in view of understanding women’s merits as authors and their present place in literary history
For women authors, the large scale approach was, in a way, a well-known feature: during centuries, they were inventoried and put together in those bio-bibliographical compilations which seem to anticipate databases. Present IT tools, however, not only allow particular aspects of their texts to be recognised and tagged, but also allow us to go beyond the anecdotal perspective, which is so often applied to women who participated in the public field, and to compare them on a larger scale: between women’s writings considered on various levels (content as well as form), and also between “male” and “female” texts.
14.
- Bio-bibliographical compilations of women authors (including the most recent Dutch compilation 1001 vrouwen): historical perspectives for comparing male vs. female “compilers”
- Janouk de Groot, Hilde Hoogenboom, Caterina Nosdeo, Mojca Sauperl:
- Italy and France Compete for Women Writers in the Nineteenth Century: Bio-Bibliographic Compilations, National Literary Histories, and Alternative Transnational Narratives
- Janouk de Groot, Hilde Hoogenboom, Caterina Nosdeo, Mojca Sauperl:
15.
- Researching the “femininity” of women’s texts: by using stylometrics and comparison of parallel corpuses
- Jan Rybicki:
- The Visibility of Translator Gender?
- Jan Rybicki:
Discussion
11.00
Coffee
Session 8:
11.30-13.00. Becoming Digital Humanists....
Our collective research has been carried out largely with the help of the research tool which was created in one of the earlier phases of the NEWW network: the WomenWriters database. We have used it intensely during these four years: its use-value and the way in which it relates to underlying theory have been discussed. In “Training Schools”, colleagues and young researchers have been trained to enter and analyse their data in this tool. The process of familiarisation has been monitored and examined, and some members, supported by IT centers in their own institutions (which were also part of the earlier Interedition COST Action), have proceeded to test the tool in different ways, considering further possibilities for our research, and the way in which it can be used by students.
16.
- Scholarly labour on women’s writing and digital collaboration between European countries
- Wolfgang Kaltenbrunner
- Scholarly labor and digital collaboration in literary studies
- Wolfgang Kaltenbrunner
17.
- Looking back
- Paul Wouters, Andrea Scharnhorn
- (to follow)
- Paul Wouters, Andrea Scharnhorn
Discussion
12.45
Lunch
On show: manuscript text and letter by Isabelle de Charrière, which had been apparently lost, but were recently re-discovered by Hein Jongbloed (National Archives)
14.00-16.00. Session 9:
Specific messages? sent and received
Reception documents often suggest that female readers might have had specific interest for women authors and their “feminine” or potentially “feminist” messages. There is, therefore, a need for large-scale analysis of this communication: what kind of plots and characters did these women propose to their readers? Did these (female?) readers react to supposedly specific messages? To which male readers and (importantly) male critics would have been reluctant? And finally: what about present male and/or female readers? Are 21st-century women more easily touched by these works because of gender solidarity ?
18.
- Researching the “femininity” of women’s texts: by studying specific narrative topoi
- Soo Downe, Francesca Scott:
- (to follow)
- Soo Downe, Francesca Scott:
19.
- Specificity of reactions to women’s works and authorship – readers, critics, historians being often less interested by their writings than by their private life
- Nancy Isenberg, Magdalena Koch, Adriana Kovacheva:
- Reputation and Reception. Looking east and west and across centuries
- Nancy Isenberg, Magdalena Koch, Adriana Kovacheva:
20.
- Another kind of connection is the one in which we are in fact engaged as researchers: putting ourselves in between the women authors we discover and try to understand on one hand, and on the other potentially interested students, pupils or just: people fascinated, not forcibly only female…
- Suzan van Dijk
- Participation as a way of creating new audiences ?
- Suzan van Dijk
Closing discussion, taking into account our new projects, new forms of collaboration, new audiences...
16.00
Tea
16.30
Final: Belle van Zuylen/Isabelle de Charrière inspiring Dutch and American musicians...
For information, contact Suzan van Dijk
Members of the organizing committee:
- Suzan van Dijk, Ton van Kalmthout (Huygens ING)
- Francesca Scott (Amsterdam University College)
- Lizet Duyvendak (Open University)
- Arno Kuipers (Royal Library)
- Janouk de Groot, assistant
- Core Group members of the Action
SvD, 31 May 2013
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