1st International Egodocumental Network Conference
Vilnius University, Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń, the University of Lodz, and the Egodocumental Research Group (https://egodocuments.umk.pl) organise an international conference focusing on research, development, and changing perceptions of egodocuments in the twenty-first century. The conference aims to bring together scholars from different disciplines to share their insights and to encourage interdisciplinary studies of egodocuments.
The conference will also be the first meeting of the International Egodocumental Network established in December 2023 by the Egodocumental Research Group (Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń and the University of Lodz) to unite scholars from different disciplines working on egodocuments. It provides a platform for discussion, collaboration, and exchange of information between the participants, as well as online research seminars organized twice a year. In this dimension, our conference continues two editions of the Scientific Symposium "Egodocuments, Life-Writing and Autobiographical Texts..." organized at NCU in Toruń in 2022 and 2024.
Keynote speakers
Dr. Nataliia Voloshkova
Kazimierz Wielki University and Oxford Brookes University
Prof. Leona Toker
Hebrew University and Shalem Academic College
Prof. François-Joseph Ruggiu
Sorbonne Université, CNRS and Oxford University
Arvydas Pacevičius
Vilnius University
Research on Egodocuments from Interdisciplinary and Book History Perspectives
Scholars of egodocuments are currently being criticised for insufficient definition of the object, an obscure approach and methodology of research; the similarity or even identity of the concept of egodocuments and historical sources is pointed out; the unclear distinction between autobiographical writing and/or documentary literature and egodocuments is emphasised. The paper proposes to approach the problems of egodocumentary research through the prism of book history: 1) to focus on a genetic-systemic typology of egodocuments; 2) to examine egodocuments as manuscript, print and modern media, and, to paraphrase Robert Darnton, to try to answer the questions: “How do egodocuments come into this world? How do they reach the audiences? How do the audiences behave with these egodocuments?” On the other hand, the idea of the book-communication cycle in the 21st century needs to be reconsidered in the light of the fundamental challenge in the concept of the document, where “the document becomes a medium of memory whose symbolic meanings change in context of interpretation of present” (Tom Nesmith). The reasons for this change and their implications for interpretations of the concept of egodocuments and for interdisciplinary approaches to research will be the subject of this presentation.
