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.