On the trail of the neverending manuscript. Comparative perspectives on rewritable media (original) (raw)

On the trail of the neverending manuscript. Comparative perspectives on rewritable media. International workshop, University of Naples ‘L’Orientale’, 30–31 May, 2023. https://sites.google.com/view/ductulivesuviani/neverending-manuscript/workshop-2023 Who wants to live forever? 🎵Maybe some types of manuscripts do. In many cases, the deliberate destruction of a text has nothing to do with auto da fé, damnatio memoriae or the like, nor does it imply the destruction of manuscripts, but is instead a welcome, ‘green’ option that saves time, space and resources. Schooling, accounting and literary creation are just some of the typical contexts in which this happens: erase and rewrite, erase and rewrite... the ‘ideal’ manuscript, here, is the one that allows us to do it endlessly, and with as little effort as possible. Manuscript cultures have responded to this challenge by inventing clay and wax tablets, rewritable inks, eraser and pencil, and much more, with complex processes of cultural transfer, contamination, and profound implications in terms of memorisation and composition, acquisition of writing, and conceptualisation of mental processes. We will go in search of the ‘infinite manuscript’ by traveling through time and space with the help of a group of specialists in cultures, manuscripts, and materials far and near, and during a hands-on session we will be able to indulge in writing on it and listening to its voice.