The Places of Literature

12 novembre 2025

Lukas Erne

Prof. Guillemette Bolens, UNIGE

Prof. Lukas Erne, UNIGE

Dr. Charlotte Potter, UNIGE

Dr. Ben Higgins, Oxford University

This event centres on the subject of 'the places of literature', especially in the early modern period. It will begin with a one-hour introductory exchange between Dr Higgins and the workshop participants in which participants will have the opportunity to introduce the group to their research topic and to reflect on its relationship to 'the places of literature' (1 hour). The event will further consist of a one-hour lecture by Dr Higgins, followed by a lengthy question time, in the course of which the PhD students will be asked to engage with issues addressed during the lecture (2 hours); and an interactive workshop, led by Dr Higgins (3 hours). Where did reading happen? In what ways might we think about literary activity as conditioned by the environment in which that activity takes place? Our focus on libraries and studies as the organising environments of reading and writing in pre-modern periods risks neglecting the many alternative spaces in which books were carried, stored, and used. These different spaces, from the metal 'forme' of the printing press to the frost fairs found on the frozen Thames, solicited different modes of interpretive strategies and formal practice. Attending to these different spaces (both physical and conceptual) offers one way to overhaul the histories of reading and of book use, dragging manuscripts and printed texts out of the library and into the streets, pockets, and coffins of pre-modernity. Dr Higgins' focus will be on the early modern period, but participants working on other periods are encouraged to attend and to reflect on and share their insights into the places of literature relevant t

UNIGE

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