Material Texts

The production, circulation, translation, and reception of texts in all aspects of their materiality.

Material Texts are concerned with the material conditions that enable, shape, and constrain texts.  This includes, for instance, work on reading communities, libraries, printing presses, digital formats, translation markets, and page layout. As a group, we combine expertise and different methodological approaches from translation studies, book history, data science, and literary sociology.  

As a group, we meet 6 times a year to discuss work-in-progress, hear presentations of our own and outside speakers’ work, support PhD students, and learn more about the different approaches to language in its material forms.

Previous collaborations between members of the group have involved a workshop on ‘Formats,’ a proposed database of translations from French, Italian, and German into Danish, a monograph on reading practices during the Covid-19 pandemic, a seminar on podcasts and audiobooks, ongoing teaching collaborations in the areas of translation and digital humanities, and various joint grant applications in our fields of interest.