Textual Embodiments: Remediating Meaning Across the Disciplines.

Eighteenth-century philology, as the science of editing and interpreting texts, while evolving in compartmentalised disciplines within the modern university curricula, formalised the analysis of written and visual works according to a shared methodology. Throughout its long history, philology has gone through important changes in the understanding of each component of the hermeneutic circle: author, text and reader. All periods in which philology was formalised as a discipline, i.e. the Hellenistic period, the Renaissance, and the second half of the eighteenth-century in Göttingen have elaborated a methodology in response to important changes in the material production and dissemination of texts. A focus on the technology of writing, the critical evaluation of the manuscript tradition, and the manufacturing of printed books and critical editions have all accompanied its evolution in response to the ground-breaking technological innovations of the time mediating culture transfer. As we are undergoing a new technological revolution with the production and dissemination of digital texts, this conference shall focus on the question of mediality in the production and circulation of texts, artistic works and performances from all periods. What is the role of each medium (writing, printing, digital textuality, artistic practice, embodied performance) in shaping communication strategies, literary and journalistic genres, as well as interactions and synergies with other media accompanying the written text? Which communities are involved in these exchanges? The topics proposed shall ideally contribute to a transhistorical, intermedial and interdisciplinary reflection.

Among the possible topics topics:
-the circulation of manuscript texts (including collections of poems, libri amicorum, albums, diaries, etc.).
-text/image dynamics from the Medieval to the contemporary period. -genres of periodical fiction and non-fiction.
-digital editions of manuscript texts.
-the evolving structures of the English language in relation to specific media.
-the history of reading, writing and publishing.
-the mediators of culture-transfer (printers, booksellers, illustrators, colonial agents).
-serialization (of printed texts and visual narratives).
-the evolving media landscape through the lens of aesthetics. -performativity in conceptual art, experimental theatre, modern dance. -literary narratives foregrounding specific media.
-self-reflexive transmedial adaptation studies.

Please send a 250 word abstract to Alberto Gabriele a.gabrieleunilink.it and Carlo M. Bajetta at c.bajettaunivda.it by June 1 2026.