Activities of the members – Elisa Marazzi

Elisa Marazzi will present her new book Libri per diventare italiani. L’editoria per la scuola a Milano nel secondo Ottocento at the Palazzo Moriggia in Milano the 4th. May.

This presentation will be followed by a discussion with Maria Luisa Betri, Giorgio Chiosso and Giogio Montecchi. Coordinated by Lodovica Braida, this event is open to everybody. invito_sc_marazzi_digitHere is an abstract of the book: Shaping the knowledge of the future citizens through school was one of the main aims of the Italian leading classes after the unification. Textbooks were a great ally in that sense, since they usually were the only book read by everybody. Publishers took advantage of this political and pedagogic need, as shown by this research on primary and printed sources (publishers’ catalogues). The history of the most important Milanese schoolbook publishers is presented focusing on the typical editorial strategies of the late 19th: book series and the publication of books and newspapers/journals by the same publisher. The study also reflects on the late affirmation, in Italy, of a proper children’s literature, different from educating and edifying books. Furthermore it reflects on how Milanese schoolbooks publishers, usually neglected by such studies in reason of the pedagogic tradition in Piedmont and Tuscany, were able to combine market and didactics in their work.

May 27th-29th – Next meeting for the network members

On May 27th-29th: ANR P-RECIHC/ Reading in Europe network members will meet in Le Mans for a workshop. The main objectives of the meeting are:
–        To review the Action’s 2 main objectives (cf. ANR submission file) and relevant extant research.
–        To  assess a framework of collaboration (forum Apereo, WGs, Regional clusters…)
–        To identify ERC & National research programs suitable for proposals
–        To pinpoint relevant scientific and societal focuses;
–        To planify contributions to the Database and activities directly  related to the objectives;

Precise schedule available upon request to the program coordinator: Brigitte.ouvry-vial[at]univ-lemans.fr

Activities of the members – Will Slauter

On Tuesday, April 28, at 5:00 PM, Will Slauter—a Lecturer in English and American Studies at the University of Paris 8 – Saint Denis, and current AAS-NEH Long-term Fellow—will present a seminar paper titled “Copyright and Credit: Understanding Reprinting in Nineteenth-Century Newspapers and Magazines”.  This talk is part of the annual series of regional academic seminars organized by AAS in partnership with the history departments at Brown University, Clark University, and the University of Connecticut. It will take place at the Society’s Goddard Daniels House, located at 190 Salisbury Street, Worcester, MA 01609.  There will be refreshments provided before the paper. If you plan to attend, please notify Paul Erickson at AAS (perickson@mwa.org) no later than Friday, April 24. For directions to AAS, please visit the Society’s website at www.americanantiquarian.org.

Activities of the members – Brigitte Ouvry-Vial and Jiri Travniczek

Brigitte Ouvry-Vial and Jiri Travniczek attended the Ist Working Groups meeting of Cost Action E-READ (www.cost.eu/COST_Actions/isch/Actions/IS1404) in Ljubjlana, Slovenia, April 8-10 2015. Focused on digital and contemporary reading processes, this action mainly gathers scholars in Information and Media Studies, Technology, Neurosciences, experimental Psychology, Sociology with so far, except for a few SHARP members,  limited interest or expertise in historical perspectives on reading practices. Still, discussions were open, the range of approaches quite large, and may lead to further valuable insights for the EU-RED project. Brigitte and Jiri will report on their respective WGS sessions and overall feedbacks in Reading in Europe next workshop (Le Mans, May 27-29).

[CultureNumerique] [Etudes] Sélection mars 2015

Here is a selection of French studies and reports about reading practices in France, gathered by Jean-Christophe Théobalt, Chargé de mission numérique, Ministère de la culture et de la communication:

Registration for a Summer School in Madrid

The University Alcala de Henares in Madrid has planned a Summer School “Otros lectores, otras lecturas. La aventura de leer desde Gutenberg hasta web 3.0.” from the 13th to the 15th of June. Two members of the network will take part in this event, Brigitte Ouvry-Vial, from University of Le Mans, and Jean-François Botrel, from University of Rennes 2. People who would like to participate should registrate and send an application. More information here

News from ANR Reading in Europe Italian regional cluster

The Italian regional cluster’s members (Lodovica Braida, Francesca Orestano, Damiano Rebecchini, Elisa Marazzi, Elisa Rebellato, Marco Canani) have started to discuss approaches and perspectives in view of the network general meeting in May.

Each member has presented her or his possible contribution to the Eu-RED database, which she or he will develop in view of the GM, offering a sample of useful material.

  • Lodovica Braida (Università degli Studi di Milano, Dip. di Studi storici) has proposed to take into account biographies from 18th century authors (Alfieri, Goldoni, Da Ponte) as far as their reading memories are concerned. Lodovica pointed out that a major theoretical issue is implied by such use of autobiography: what is the value of “writings on the self” in terms of authenticity? To what extent can we exploit such writings as sources for the Eu-RED database?
  • Francesca Orestano (Università degli Studi di Milano, Dip. di Lingue e letterature straniere-Anglistica) will work on Virginia Woolf as a reader, offering a sample of how Eu-RED can take into account letters, diaries, and notebooks; Francesca has also mentioned other sources whose potential might be discussed after a theoretical reflection on authenticity. These are: reading suggestions in travel guides during late modernity; reader’s response in children’s literature; didactic texts which provide a reading list, and related comments, such as Tomasi di Lampedusa’s Lezioni di letteratura inglese.
  • Damiano Rebecchini (Università degli Studi di Milano, Dip. di Lingue e letterature straniere-Slavistica) has proposed a study of reading reactions to the works of Gogol’, Lermontov and Tolstoj in Russia during 19th century, focused on sources regarding both peasant readers and reading reactions from the court (czars and high officers).
  • Elisa Marazzi (Università degli Studi di Milano, Dip. di Studi storici) has proposed, as far as children- and young adults’ reading is concerned, readers’ letters published in children’s journals as a source. It is necessary to take into account that such material could be not genuine, and written by the editorial staff for advertising reasons. Further reflections on how to use such material are due. Another, less direct, source, could be represented by teachers’ diaries and memoirs.
  • Elisa Rebellato (Bologna, Biblioteca comunale dell’Archiginnasio) has pointed out some originals of letters written by the young readers of a children’s journal, preserved in Florence, Gabinetto Viesseux, Archivio Contemporaneo “A. Bonsanti”, Fondo Orvieto. It is necessary to verify if other documents are preserved in the same archive and if it is possible to find similar documents elsewhere. This kind of source offers useful reading evidence avoiding the above mentioned question of truthfulness.
  • Marco Canani (Università degli Studi di Milano, Dip. di Lingue e letterature straniere-Anglistica) will work on the Vernon Lee Collection, based in Florence (British Institute of Florence), which contains over 400 commented/annotated books owned by the writer.

The majority of these proposals can be regrouped under four kind of activities that are put into place by the reading activity:

-reading for writing: the connection between authorship and the author’s readings

-reading for travelling

-reading for playing: reading as the basis for cultural identity in games

-reading for teaching

A second level of the debate has focused on theoretical key issues concerning the database building process (structure and queries definition). A list of concepts worthwhile taking into account while building up the database emerged:

-silent/individual reading vs shared/loud reading

-emotion, pleasure of reading

-women readers

– is there a European reading code/canon?

As a consequence of the debate, some open issues emerged, in particularly the already mentioned implications of the “writings of the self” (memoirs, letters, diaries, autobiographies), which may become the object of further discussion within the activities of the Italian cluster.

Activities of the Consortium – Lodovica Braida

Lodovica Braida, Professor at the Milano University, has spoken about “Paolo Manuzio from Publisher to Author: His Tre libri di lettere volgari (1556 and 1560)” during the conference The Afterlife of Aldus:Posthumous Fame, Collectors and the Book Trade which was hosted by The Warburg Institute. http://warburg.sas.ac.uk/events/colloquia-2014-15/afterlife-of-aldus/
She will also take part in the conference Manuscrits italiens du XVIIIe siècle : une approche génétique, in Paris, 19th-20th of March, organised by the CNRS, the ENS and University Paris 3 Sorbonne Nouvelle. She will speak about “L’autore negato. Il mercato del libro e “la terribile prova dello stampare””.  http://www.univ-paris3.fr/manuscrits-italiens-du-xviiie-siecle-une-approche-genetique-309779.kjsp?RH=1236682598223

News from the Italian regional cluster

The Italian regional cluster’s members have started to discuss approaches and perspectives in view of the network general meeting in May.

Each member has presented her or his possible contribution to the Eu-RED database, which she or he will develop in view of the GM. The discussion has focused on which theoretical key issues the database building process needs to take into account (structure and queries definition). As a consequence of this debate, some open issues emerged, in particularly related to the “Writing of the self” (memoirs, letters, autobiographies), which may be object of further discussion within the activities of the Italian cluster.

A more detailed summary of the meeting will be published on the new exchange tool created for the network by Gauthier Michelin.

Minutes of the meeting “WG5 Digital Support Group- EU-RED Development” (Paris, 19/12/2014)

As part of the project P-RECIHC, a meeting took place December 19, 2014 to discuss the future European Reading Experience Database (EU-RED).

On this occasion Gauthier Michelin was introduced as the DB Engineer (Welcome Gauthier!). Based in Le Mans, on the university campus, he willdevelop the database under the local supervision of François Vignaleand within WG5, coordinated by ShafquatTowheed.

Members of the network who participated in the one-day workshop are: E. Candel, P. Chasseray-Peraldi, S. Dumouchel (by skype), G. Gomez-Mejia, B. Ouvry-Vial, N. Richard, S. Towheed, F. Vignale; and a guest, Mathieu Simonnet, who briefly presented a recent experiment with hospital patients asked to write about their teens on notebooks and the possible developments of that experiment.

The EU-RED is inspired by and shaped after the model of the UK-RED (http://www.open.ac.uk/Arts/reading/UK/), directed by ShafquatTowheed (Open University). But the template of the UK-RED needs refreshment and technological updates, it focuses on British reading testimonies only, and on written testimonies. The ANR main objective is therefore to develop a Pan-European database with new functionalities more fitted to new technological tools and uses, and incorporating all sorts of documents and ressources (written, visual, videos, surveys etc…).

To build the layout of this database, a series of questions needs to be asked (to all network members), regarding: Data fields? Languages: at least 3 main languages: French, English and…? More? Types of documents (format, characteristics)?Data protection? Future uses foreseen for the DB ?

To answer these questions, and many other questions… network membersare requested to send material asap, to prepare the mock up DB in advance of next General meeting (May 2015 in Le Mans):

_ Examples of data to be used as a test corpus or samples for a mock up or primary database?

_ Examples of uses or questions for future exploitation of the database

_Key Pieces of information about their working group and/or research project (reading conception, reading evaluation, reading practices, nation, cultural practices, type of reading, results of surveys, etc.).

All answers on this matter, document, comment, suggestion or idea will be shared on a private shared work space to be released soon through the network mailing list.

This meeting has also defined the two main objectives of the next GM, open to all members of the network (answer requested by doodle) and for which a specific program will soon be released.

Brigitte Ouvry-Vial, Program coordinator

Garette Stewart’s lectures

Mathew Rubery has the pleasure to announce that SHARP members are very welcome to attend Garrett Stewart’s series of Leverhulme lectures on “Transmedial Art” starting next month at Queen Mary University of London. Here are the dates:

 Thursday February 19, 5.15: “Codex 2.0:  Turning the Conceptual Page” (Lockkeeper’s Cottage, QMUL)

 Tuesday March 3, 5.15: “Viewing Transmedium:  Looping the Loop” (ArtsOne Lecture Theatre, QMUL)

 Thursday March 12, 6.00: “Transmediation and the Cinematic Reframe” (Senate House, room G35)

 Garrett is the author of more than a dozen books including Dear Reader: The Conscripted Audience in Nineteenth-Century British Fiction (1996), The Look of Reading: Book, Painting, Text (2006), and Bookwork: Medium to Object to Concept to Art (2011). You can find his profile here: http://www.english.uiowa.edu/people/garrett-stewart

 http://www.sed.qmul.ac.uk/staff/ruberym.html

New publication: Libri per diventare italiani. L’editoria per la scuola a Milano nel secondo Ottocento

We are pleased to announce the new book of a member of our network:
Elisa Marazzi, Libri per diventare italiani. L’editoria per la scuola a Milano nel secondo Ottocento. Milano: FrancoAngeli, 2014
Shaping the knowledge of the future citizens through school was one of the main aims of the Italian leading classes after the unification. Textbooks were a great ally in that sense, since they usually were the only book read by everybody. Publishers took advantage of this political and pedagogic need, as shown by this research on primary and printed sources (publishers’ catalogues). The history of the most important Milanese schoolbook publishers is presented focusing on the typical editorial strategies of the late 19th: book series and the publication of books and newspapers/journals by the same publisher. The study also reflects on the late affirmation, in Italy, of a proper children’s literature, different from educating and edifying books. Furthermore it reflects on how Milanese schoolbooks publishers, usually neglected by such studies in reason of the pedagogic tradition in Piedmont and Tuscany, were able to combine market and didactics in their work.
http://www.francoangeli.it/Ricerca/Scheda_libro.aspx?ID=22224