"Connecting the Dots": Conceptualising "Trace" in the Nexus of Novels and Readers' Sensory Imaginings

International Workshop

September 24-25, 2020
Johannes Gutenberg University, Mainz, Germany
Organisation: Jun.-Prof. Dr. Monika Class (P. I.) and Natasha Anderson, M.A.

The workshop will be held virtually due to Covid-19.

From footprints in the sand to drops of blood in the snow, trace plays a central role in the way we read the world.

In the face of new developments in the cultural practice of reading, the upcoming workshop "Connecting the Dots": Conceptualising "Trace" in the Nexus of Novels and Readers’ Sensory Imaginings at the University of Mainz seeks to uncover the potential of the concept of trace in relation to readers’ immersion in novels and visceral interaction with narratives.

This conference is designed to shed new light on the analysis of novel reading experiences by examining in what manner the concept of trace offers a key to readers’ willingness to engage with, and emotionally respond to, novels. In this spirit, this symposium sets out to investigate the interaction between trace and reading as facets of interpretive processes actively engaging the recipient in creative acts of sensory imagination.

For this purpose, four conference panels focus on aspects of how trace can function as a key to unlock the investigative and visceral potential of the reading process:

  1. The Visible Trace
  2. The Environmental Trace
  3. The Material Trace
  4. The Human Trace

Additional information available from Twitter #connectdots2020 .

 

 

 

 

 

 

Photo credit: Raul G. Acosta