Working Together. Practices of Literary Collaboration

• Applicant: Professorin Dr. Erika Thomalla
• Subject Area: German Literary and Cultural Studies (Modern German Literature)
• Term: since 2022
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 504286247

The network aims to observe the practices of literary collaboration and the ways in which they are discursivized over a larger historical period from the early 19th century to the present. The network’s focus will be on the activities of marginal and intermediary figures in the literature business. It will examine how practices of deletion or evaluation, interactions between authors and readers, processes of proofreading, or the collaborative production of texts (e.g., in the theater or at readings) have changed over time. The network asks which actors and professions engage in such practices, and at what historical junctures new roles or fields of activity were added. It connects scholars – predominantly junior scholars – internationally who have worked on different practices of literary collaboration or have studied similar collaborative practices in different historical periods. Through their exchange, both the historical transformation of collaborative practices and their interaction should be better explored.

• DFG Programme: Scientific Networks