Digital methods of formatting and distributing text are responsible for lasting changes in the relationship between texts and their creators. Consequently, this project will investigate new, digital models of authorship that transcend classic concepts. Concepts of authorship – including ideas about 'the charismatic artist' and 'intellectual property' – will be probed for how they have changed, for example, through the shifting temporalities of the digital and new media forms of interactivity. The project will focus on collective authorship (collaboration/cooperation/co-opting) and how the digital intervenes upon the traditional author/reader binary. The concept of literary community will be particularly investigated with a view to the tensions between anonymity and authorship. The common rejection of individual authorship within the digital medium raises questions about the notion of authorship as such. The social and political affordances of digital authorship will be discussed against the background of (and in comparison with) historical constellations in the pre-digital age.

Participants

• Prof. Dr. Jürgen Brokoff
• Prof. Dr. Michael Gamper (project lead)
• Anna Sophie Luhn
• Prof. Dr. Cornelia Ortlieb
• Prof. Dr. Anita Traninger
• Paul Wolff