Kšištof Tolkačevski

Vilnius University

Between the Gravestone Inscription and the Selfie: Exploring the Boundaries of Egodocumentation

New directions in the study of egodocuments in the 20th and 21st centuries, the emergence of new document types, and the re-evaluation and expansion of the concept of a document itself (Paul Otlet, Suzanne Briet, etc.) force us to rethink the concept of the egodocument.

If we consider the fundamental principle of egodocumentality to be the ego inherent in the document, which consciously or accidentally reveals itself, then even an inscription on a tombstone can be considered an egodocument if we can see the author behind it. The presentation will provide a detailed discussion of cases of epitaph creation where the ‘future deceased’ themselves actively participated in creating the text for their future graves. Furthermore, the presentation will examine the possibility of other document types and genres that have emerged in the 21st century and exist in the digital environment to become egodocuments.

Based on the work of theorists, we will try to answer the following questions: what can generally be considered an egodocument in the 21st century? Where are the boundaries of egodocumentality? Can all types and kinds of documents theoretically become egodocuments? Are the documents that have emerged in the context of the new media (films, selfies, social media posts) also egodocuments?