Universidade de Coimbra, FCT PhD Programme in Materialities of Literature

"Materialities of Literature" is the name of a PhD Programme of the University of Coimbra funded by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT). Here follows an excerpt from the programme's presentation: "Changes in the technologies of communication over the past three decades have changed both the regimes of representation of media, and the regimes of representation based on the codes of writing. This modification opened up a new chapter in the critical theory of the materialities of communication, affecting research into literary forms of the past, as well as of the present. The purpose of this programme is to develop an emerging area of research dedicated to analyzing the materialities of literature – materialities of sound, voice, performance, image, book, writing, and also the digital materialities that define many contemporary literary practices and forms. This analysis of materiality will also imply a reflection on the technological mediations accompanying literature produced in the nineteenth, twentieth and twenty-first centuries – printed codex, photography, phonograph, typewriting, film, radio, television, video, computer, mobile phone, social and locative media. (...) This programme has no equivalent in the national network of higher education, and only partial equivalents elsewhere in the world. It is an innovative research and teaching programme in theme and approach, as has been recognized by experts from different institutions around the world. Its aim is to open a new area in literary studies in Portugal and to build the critical mass for its future development, namely by the establishment of a research group within the Centre for Portuguese Literature at the University of Coimbra (CLP). This research group has been named “Digital Mediation and Materialities Literature” and is part of the strategic plan of CLP for the period 2015-2020. To the extent that this is an emerging area, its establishment in Portugal will help refresh and renew the theoretical field of literary studies. Its ultimate goal is to contribute to a change in the practices of research and teaching literature within the broader project of rethinking the Humanities in the age of software and new media." (Source: Daniela Côrtes Maduro and programme's presentation)