Wednesday, January 21, 10:00-17:30
RAVENSTEIN SEMINAR
READING AND READERSHIPS
Introductory workshop for RMA-students
Organization: Sander Bax (UvT) & Stephan Besser (UvA)
Location: Belle van Zuylenzaal, Universiteitsbibliotheek
1012 WP Amsterdam, Singel 425
The purpose of this one-day workshop is to introduce OSL RMA-students to the topic of this
years Ravenstein Winter School and to prepare them for active participation in the seminar
on the following two days. To this end we will read and discuss passages from seminal
theoretical texts on reading and readership as well as key publications of some of the
speakers presenting at the conference. The discussions in the workshop will produce a set
of questions and critical observations that the students can contribute to the conference
meetings and use as starting points for their conference portfolios.
Credits: In order to get credits (5 ec) for the Ravenstein seminar RMA-students have to 1)
be present on all three days of the Winter School, i.e. in the graduate workshop on January
21 and Jan 22 & 23, and actively participate in the discussions, in particular in the RMAworkshop; 2) have to study the texts in the reader and prepare an assignments (800 words0
for the workshop; 3) have to prepare a portfolio (3000 words) that contains brief reports
and more extensive reflections on selected presentations given during the conference,
relating them to workshop discussions and, possibly, their own research interests.
Pre-conference assignment [2]:
Read the six texts by Collins, Hassler-Forest, van der Weel, Kuijpers et al., Burke and
Korthals Altes (printed in bold in the bibliography) carefully. Prepare a question and
a discussion point on four of these six texts of your own choice. The question (200
words) should address something that you find confusing/in need of clarification
etc. in the text, the discussion point (200 words) should be a critical remark,
observation or brief elaboration on the text that you want to discuss during the
workshop. In both the question and the discussion you can (but do not have to) refer
to all other texts in the reader as well. Send your assignment (800 words, all in one
word document) to OSL-fgw@[Link] by January 15, 2015 (subject heading:
Ravenstein assignment).
1
Be prepared to discuss all texts in the reader on a general level. That doesnt mean
that you need to study them in the same depth as the four/six texts for the written
assignment; you should, however, be familiar with the general line of argument and
the approach to reading and readership that comes to the fore in these texts. (It can
help to make a mind map of these various approaches in order to get a first overview
of the thematic and conceptual range of the seminar.) Please make sure to have read
the text by Benjamins et al. careful enough to respond to the presentation by Sandra
van Voorst and Jeneatte den Tonder in the afternoon session!
Portfolio [3]: Your portfolio is your intellectual logbook of the seminar in which you
summarize and comment on some of the lectures and discussions taking place during the
conference from the perspective of your own (research) interests; more specific
instructions for the preparation of the portfolios will follow during the workshop. The
deadline for handing in the portfolios is on Monday, Februar 2, 2015. Please send your
portfolio to OSL-fgw@[Link] (subject heading: Ravenstein portfolio). Students who want to
receive 6 ec for the Winter School have to prepare a more extensive portfolio of 4500 words
and announce this intention to the organizers of the workshop as early as possible, but in
any case before the end of the seminar.
Programme RMA-workshop
9:30 10:00
Registration and coffee
10:00 11:20
Introduction to the topic of the seminar (Sander Bax & Stephan
Besser)
11:20 11:35
Break
11:35 12:45
Discussion of the texts by Collins, van der Weel, Korthals Altes, Burke,
Kuijpers and Hassler Forest in workgroups; preparation of questions
for the conference
12:45 13:45
Lunch
13:45 15:15
Plenary discussion and summary of the results of the workgroups
15:15 15:30
Break
15:30 17:00
Presentation by Sandra van Voorst and Jeanette den Toonder (RUG)
and their students on the research project Gedeelde literatuur.
cultuuroverdracht door leesgroepen (in Dutch)
Bibliography (reader)
Benjamins, M., M. Nagtegaal & S. van Voorst. Het geheim van de lezer. Lezen bij de Drentse
literatuurclubs. Jaarboek voor Nederlandse boekgeschiedenis 18. Nijmegen/Leiden:
Uitgeverij Vantilt & Nederlandse Boekhistorische Vereniging, 2011, 191208.
Brooker, Will. It Is Love: The Lewis Carroll Society as a Fan Community. American
Behavioral Scientist 48.7 (2005): 859-880.
Bruyn, Ben de. E-readers, Deconvergence Culture and McSweeneys Circle: An Interview
with Jim Collins. Image & Narrative 14.3.2013: 193-206.
Burke, Michael. Literary Reading, Cognition and Emotion: An Exploration of the Oceanic
Mind. New York: Routledge, 2011. 1-26.
Collins, Jim. Bring on the Books for Everybody: How Literary Culture became Popular Culture.
2010. Durham: Duke UP, 2010. 1-35; 80-117.
Collins, Jim. Reading, in a Digital Archive of Ones Own. PMLA 128.1 (2013): 207-212.
Iser, Wolfgang. The Reading Process: A Phenomenological Approach. The Implied Reader:
Patterns in Communication in Prose Fiction from Bunyan to Beckett. Baltimore: Johns
Hopkins UP, 1974. 50-69.
Felski, Rita. Uses of Literature. Malden, MA: Blackwell, 2008. 1-22.
Hassler-Forest, Dan. Transmedia: verhalen vertellen in het digitale tijdperk.
Amsterdam: AUP, (2013), 114-148.
Kuijpers, Moniek & F. Hakemulder & E.S. Tan & M.M. [Link] Absorbing
Reading Experiences: Developing and Validating a Self-Report Scale to Measure
Story world Absorption. Scientific Study of Literature 4.1 (2014): 89-122.
Korthals Altes, Liesbeth. Ethos and Narrative Interpretation: The Negotiation of Values
in Fiction. Lincoln and London: University of Nebraska Press, 2014. 89-122.
Manovich, Lev. Database as Symbolic Form. Convergence 5.2 (1999): 80-99.
Jenkins, Henry. Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide. New York: New York
UP, 2006. 1-24.
Weel, Adriaan van der. Changing Our Textual Minds: Towards a Digital Order of
Knowledge. Manchester & New York: Manchester UP, 2011. 1-7; 142-192.
Wolf, Mark J. P. World Gestalten: Ellipses, Logic and Extrapolation in Imaginary Worlds.
Projections 6.1. (2012): 123-141.