SHARP NEWS Volume 25, Number 2 2016 CONFERENCES ‘Contemporary Book History Discourse: my home campus, the University of Victoria, Writing, Reading, and Researching in the and to continuing the excellent discussions SHARP 2016 Reflections Digital Sphere.’ Bold presented on “The Social from July 2016. Merci SHARP 2016! Author: Identifying a New Generation of SHARP 2016 was a whirlwind of intel- Influencers and Innovators in Contemporary Alyssa Arbuckle lectual discussion in Paris. It was my first Authorship,” where she examined the self- University of Victoria publishing platform Wattpad and compared time attending a SHARP conference, and I c was really struck by the depth and breadth the audience impact of various users. Martens of the keynote presentations, paper sessions, spoke to the growing corpus and complications Global Book History at Paris of specialized fan fiction in “The Language and digital demonstrations. From Antoine SHARP 2016 Compagnon’s opening keynote Monday of Betrayal: Ownership, Power, and Control of J.K. Rowling’s Pottermore Website,” and evening on Ma langue d’en France to the closing With the support of the Gladys Weedon offered a thoroughly researched and plenary roundtable on Thursday afternoon Kreble Delmas Foundation, the SHARP considered talk entitled “Reflecting on Uses with guest of honour Roger Chartier, all of conference brought together six scholars of Quantitative and Qualitative Methods in the featured speakers (Campagnon, Anne from developing countries, to review the Researching Digital Reading and Writing, Coldiron, David McKitterick, and Chartier) state of book history in their native countries. Online Communities, and Readers.” All offered thought-provoking meditations and The speakers at the Delmas Workshop were three presenters were engaged conceptually arguments on the past, present, and future of from South America (Argentina and Brazil), in digital publishing, and were able to offer the book – including its scholarship, contexts, Asia (Vietnam) and Eastern Europe (Russia, audience members a thorough overview of and many actors. Croatia, and Rumania). The session was co- contemporary trends, especially within the There were many highlights for me as a chaired by Jean-Yves Mollier (Université de context of a global readership. newcomer to SHARP (not least of all the Versailles-St-Quentin-en-Yvelines), Martyn Andie Silva presented “‘Planely and Truly Wednesday evening floating banquet on Lyons (University of New South Wales) and Expounded’: Navigational Paratexts and the Seine, a rather memorable conference Susan Pickford (Université Paris-Sorbonne), the Language of Mediation” in a panel on experience!), but I’d like to highlight a few who also acted as translator when this was ‘Paratext and the Art of Mediation,’ and I presentations here that especially stuck out, required. Between 20 and 25 participants think that paratext may have been one of beyond the aforementioned. Meaghan Brown, attended. the words most frequently found in the Jessica Otis, and Paige Morgan sat on a panel We began with contributions from South conference programme and on attendees’ lips. titled ‘A Text by Any Other Name: Citing America, by Mariana de Moraes Silveira, The broad interpretations and applications Primary Sources in Bibliographical and Early a doctoral student at the Universidade de of Gérard Genette’s theories lent the subject Modern Studies.’ Brown, Otis, and Morgan São Paolo (Brazil), and Gustavo Sorá, an matter a deserved weight. During the panel discussed a current project they’ve been anthropologist from the Universidad de ‘Imagining the Text: (Digital) Typefaces Past developing where they collect and analyze Córdoba (Argentina). Both spoke in French. and Present,’ James Andrew Hodges explored the citation data of a handful of key early Mariana Silveira emphasized the existence book history ideas through experimental modern journals. A time-heavy undertaking, of a strong tradition of antiquarianism and software in “Timothy Leary’s Incomplete to be certain, but one that could potentially bibliography in late 19th and early 20th lead to standardization across publications, Software and the Dream of Post-Literal which would carry significant benefits for Culture (1985-1996).” researchers, libraries, publishers, and journals All in all, I found the SHARP 2016 CONTENTS alike. This thematic panel allowed for an in- conference an incredibly rewarding experience, depth and multi-perspective engagement with and I hope that the brief synopses of selected the project at hand. presentations above gives you a sense of CONFERENCES 1 Melanie Ramdarshan Bold, Marianne some of the cutting-edge research being BOOK REVIEWS 4 Martens, and Alexis Weedon came together discussed in this community. I look forward EXHIBITION REVIEWS 38 in a fascinating panel on contemporary digital to welcoming SHARP 2017 Technologies of E-RESOURCE REVIEWS 40 writing platforms and experiences aptly titled the Book (http://www.sharp2017.com/) to BIBLIOGRAPHY 43 2 c 2016 SHARP NEWS VOL. 25, NO. 2 century Brazil, which has now evolved into even in rural areas, Lê Hông Phuoc reported SHARP NEWS a form of book history constantly open that historical research in Vietnam has barely to European intellectual influences. Brazil left the ground, and that its main value lies in has always looked to France for its cultural its contribution to the professional training EDITOR Padmini Ray Murray models, and book history there absorbed the of librarians. Srishti Institute of Art, Design and Technology legacies of French cultural history and the Our three eastern European colleagues, [email protected] histoire des mentalités. Brazilian book historians who all spoke in English, described have produced many scholarly studies of difficulties of a slightly different nature in EDITORIAL ASSISTANT censorship, the history of the press and of their own countries, and they located the main Shalmi Barman libraries, and important syntheses already problems in their emergence from Soviet or Jadavpur University exist, such as Laurence Hallewell’s Books Soviet-style regimes in Russia and Rumania, [email protected] in Brazil: A History of the Publishing Trade or from Yugoslav communism the case of REVIEWS EDITORS (1982), translated into (Brazilian) Portuguese Croatia. Tatiana Bogrdanova, a Ph.D student Susann Liebich, Books –Australasia/Pacific in 1985. Today, researchers influenced by from the University of Eastern Finland in University of Heidelberg, Germany the transnational turn concentrate on the Joensuu, explained that research into ‘book [email protected]. reception of nineteenth-century French science’ virtually ground to a halt in the Soviet de fiction but, in Silveira’s opinion, connections Union during the Stalinist years, when the Christina Ionescu, Books – Europe with the United States remain under- book market was flooded with propaganda Mount Allison University, Canada explored. literature produced on a massive scale by [email protected] Silveira’s masterly overview sketched the state-regulated publishing houses. After Clayton McCarl, Books – Latin America history and achievements of a flourishing the fall of communism, many publishers University of North Florida, FL, USA discipline which casts regular glances towards could not survive economic de-regulation [email protected] its Argentinian neighbours for comparative and collapsed; but eventually university Jeffrey Makala, Books - North America purposes. Gustavo Sorá’s presentation programmes, independent scholarly journals Furman University, SC, USA confirmed this growth of comparative and libraries recovered. The Moscow State [email protected] Latin American studies. Sorá outlined the University of the Printing Arts dominates the Erin A. Smith, Books - North America relevant academic programmes and research field of book studies and information science University of Texas at Dallas, TX, USA centres on book history in Buenos Aires in Russia. Bogrdanova pointed towards a [email protected] and Córdoba. He underlined the emergence potential threat to further progress in Russian Abhijit Gupta, Books – South Asia of publishing houses specialising in book book studies – the growing intellectual Jadavpur University, Kolkata, India history, such as Ampersand in Buenos Aires, isolation of the Russian Federation does not [email protected] which recently produced the first national augur well for its future. Melanie Ramdarshan Bold, Exhibitions history of the book in Argentina by José In Croatia, as Nada Topić from the Solin University College, London Luis de Diego (La otra cara de Jano. Una mirada Public Library reported, book studies re- [email protected] crítica sobre el libro y la edición [The Other Face main a new field involving a small research Molly Hardy, E-Resources of Janus. Critical Perspectives on the Book community. The discipline is centred around American Antiquarian Society, MA, USA and on Publishing], 2015). In Argentina, as in libraries, information science, museology [email protected] Brazil, Sorá outlined a thriving autonomous and the digitisation of the national heritage. tradition of book history which remains The main centres of activity are at the three BIBLIOGRAPHER extremely receptive to external and especially universities of Zagreb, Osijek, and Zadar. Cecile M. Jagodzinski French influences, and is a vital part of an Alex Cioroga, a Ph.D student from [email protected] expanding network of South American Babeș-Bolyai University