The concept of trace has received remarkably limited academic attention considering that it unites both the variable signification of the literary world and the materiality of the physical world and thus functions as a gateway to the reciprocal communication between text and audience. This conference can thereby illuminate the integral interaction between readers and novels from the nineteenth century to today.
The guiding questions explored in this workshop include, but are not limited to:
- What is the communicative function of trace in the coproduction of embodied novel reading experiences (when readers bring the events, characters, and settings imaginatively to life)?
- How does trace in novels encourage the reader’s imaginative participation?
- In what manner does the concept of trace relate to the process of how memories and sensory imaginings are activated when readers interact with narratives?