Eurizon.eu

Organization: Utrecht University, Faculty of Humanities

Location: Utrecht, Netherlands

Field: Language sciences

Requirements:

Both candidate I and II are expected to be enthusiastic researchers with excellent track records. Both candidates need to have graduated in a relevant field and have specialized in comparative literature, especially as concerns the study of intermediality, textuality and digitization, avant-garde and/or with a special interest in book art. Candidate II needs to have sufficient skills in archive research and, if possible, modes of reader-response research. Both candidate I and II should be teamplayers and be able to work on deadlines

Abstract:

The project Back to the Book researches the resilience of the book as a literary medium in the digital age.

Description:

The project Back to the Book researches the resilience of the book as a literary medium in the digital age. Since the late 1980s, scholars have claimed that the future of Western literature as an art form would be electronic: innovations in literature would come from the electronic technology of hypertext, replacing paper and books as state-of-the-art bearers of the literary. Why has this not happened? Why have we seen that literature - precisely since the 1990s – has reinvented itself just as radically on paper as it has on screen? The project aims to answer this question from the new perspective of media divergence. The project will focus on the fields of book-altering, (typo-)graphic fiction, and personal zines respectively. The two PhD positions will  focus on the latter two fields. This project is financed by the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Researsch (NWO) within its Innovative Research Scheme (VIDI). PhD-project I: The Novel and the New: Graphic Fiction in the Digital Age (vacancy number 681103) The project researches how the paper-based novel has evolved itself during the age of digitization (1990-2010) as a new, multimedial medium, whereby book, page, print, texture, design, and story form one integral whole. What does this development tell us about the interaction, or precisely the contrast, between analog and digital media? Do these novels test the limits of the book, or, conversely, the limits of the internet? Supervisors: Kiene Brillenburg (Utrecht University) and Jessica Pressman (Yale University) PhD-project II: Self-Expression in Personal Zines (vacancy number 681104) Nowadays, communal and networked writing is generally seen as an innovative aspect of digital media (weblogs, twitter). This project shows the contrary. It is focused on personal zines: hand-made, non-commercially produced and distributed personal manuscripts that can be autobiographic in nature, and that are part of a paper-based subculture parallel to the internet. How do perzines recycle an “old” manuscript culture and how do they thus function as predecessors and alternatives to online writing communities? Supervisor: Kiene Brillenburg (Utrecht University).
 
We offer two PhD positions (1,0 fte) with a one year contract beginning June 1, 2011. After a positive evaluation this contract can be extended to a maximum of three more years (a total of four years maximum). This provides graduates with an opportunity to finish their doctoral dissertation in four years, funded by NWO. The PhD researchers, also referred to as doctoral candidates, are expected to take courses at the Dutch National School of Literature and/or the Netherlands Institute of Cultural Analysis. The salary will start at € 2,042,- and increases to € 2.612,- gross per month in the fourth year fo the appointment. We also offer solid benefits.  More information: terms of employment

Deadline: 19-02-2011

Contacts:

Link: http://www.uu.nl/

Email: humanitiesjobs.gw@uu.nl

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