Dear all,

here’s a call for papers for a special issue of Zeitschrift für digitale Geisteswissenschaften! (German version see: https://zfdg.de/cfp-sonderband-2023)

Neither “Fail” nor “Hymn”: Non-decisive Valuation of Literature in the Digital Sphere

The aim of the planned special issue of the Zeitschrift für digitale Geisteswissenschaften is to shed more light on the phenomenon of non-decisive literary valuation under the auspices of the digital transformation, using various approaches and concrete case studies. The call emerged from a panel at the 27th Germanistentag in 2022.

Theme

Today, millions of readers evaluate literature using a variety of digital apps and Internet platforms. The spectrum ranges from the awarding of stars and likes to detailed reviews and the rewriting and rewriting practices of fan fiction. Here, the digital space opens up a new kind of evaluation practice beyond the premises of professional literary criticism. Especially non-decisive acts of evaluation, which occupy a middle position between the rating poles, allow a differentiated weighing of weaknesses and strengths of the evaluated text and at the same time enable the exploration of the evaluation process itself. Examples of non-decisive evaluative acts include the use of ordinal middle positions ('three out of five stars'), ambivalent reviews that juxtapose both positive and negative aspects of a work, or the transformative practice of fan fiction that takes up and reuses selected aspects of source texts while ignoring others.

Rather fuzzy middle positions open up interesting dimensions of analysis with uncertainty and ambivalence. Moreover, valuing always means referencing: so what role do practices of comparison play in non-decisive valuations? In the digital space, both the expertise of the wreaders and the media conditions of literary platforms such as Wattpad, Goodreads, and other social media such as TikTok and YouTube come into focus.

Central here seem to be both the underlying axioms on the level of content, form, and effect of evaluation and their linguistic expression, as well as aspects of social action and the mediality of evaluation practices – for example, the social function of the mostly peer-supported wreaders’ communities and the digital materiality of the platforms.

Possible topics are:

(comparative) analysis of non-decisive valuation(s) on selected wreading or reviewing platforms.

(linguistic, semiotic, pictorial, etc.) signs of non- decisive valuation acts

Scales, frames of reference, and manifestations of non- decisive valuation practices

Non-decisive value practices in historical comparison

Non-decisive value and social value practices in the digital space

Non-decisive valuing as a way of participating in the discourse on literature

The relationship between uncertainty and ambiguity in literary evaluation

Mediality of non-decisive valuation practices in the digital space

Structure of the Special Issue

Special focus is given to studies from the field of Digital Humanities that use computer-based methods. Contributions can be written in German or English.

The planned publication venue is the Zeitschrift für digitale Geisteswissenschaften; accepted contributions will be published as a digital special issue under Open Access conditions and reviewed in Open [Public] Peer Review (post publication).

Papers may be submitted in the following categories:

Long Papers

Contributions on theoretical and methodological questions as well as critical debates on epistemological horizons of the described topic complex in the context of the Digital Humanities.

Present research results or projects in detail and put them up for discussion, or deal with overarching issues.

Length: 5,000 to 10,000 words

Project Presentations

Present and discuss concrete projects on the topic and place them in the research context.

Length: 2,000 to 5,000 words

Data Papers

Accompany the publication of research data on the subject complex, which are published either in the research data repository of the Herzog August Bibliothek / the MWW or externally (in compliance with the FAIR principles)

Present in detail the underlying questions, collection methods, and potential horizons of use and their limitations of the research data and place them in the research context

Length: up to 10,000 words

Please note that with this new (English, more international) call the new deadline for full papers is 31 AUGUST (please disregard the date on https://zfdg.de/cfp-sonderband-2023). Please send us your abstract by 18 MAY (500 words).

Do not hesitate to approach us with any questions.

Very best,

Maria Kraxenberger & Berenike Herrmann

Prof. Dr. Berenike Herrmann German Literature / Digital Humanities Bielefeld University

https://jberenike.github.io/

Acting Chair SCC Collections NFDI text+ (National Research Data Infrastructure, Consortium text+)

Speaker BiLinked CoP Data Literacy

Principal Investigator SNF-Project “High Mountains Low Arousal? Distant Reading Topographies of Sentiment in German Swiss Novels in the early 20th Century”

Principal Investigator SFB1288 Project “Vergleichspraktiken in der Genese, Verstetigung und Transformation von ‘Nationalliteratur’. Der Fall Deutschschweiz”