Dissemination

The media change is evident in all areas of literary dissemination: publishers, book shops and libraries but disseminating instances in a broader sense such as literary criticism and literary studies have changed too. Publishing houses and publishing festivals use digital means of dissemination, as do archives and museums. The diverse possibilities of electronic storage and archiving do not just cover volume and capacity, but also the presentation of texts for instance in the form of multimedia display. Numerous research perspectives present themselves in this field.

1. In a direct but also in a disseminated way, the effects of the digital world become apparent in the forms of the commercial Dissemination of literature.

1.1 The form of appearance and marketing of books have experienced a significant transition due to digital formats. Aside from digital versions of printed texts, there are literary new publications as well as subject literature, trade journals and monographs which exist exclusively in digital form. E-books and print on demand are particularly relevant. The contention of literary criticism with E-Books has so far been restricted to (tendentially defensive) prognoses or soberly describing the technical options, which could arise from the advancing digitisation of the book market: Publishing Studies, Publishing Science or Media Science concentrate on the economical and technical conditions of the new medium as well as the advantages and disadvantages of digital reading. Studies would be fruitful for example as to the question, which consequences arise from the media transition from the secondary medium of the book to the tertiary medium of the E-book for authors, readers and the text itself and to what extent the increasing mobility of the readers has an effect in an aesthetic regard for 'digital content'.

A further important research topic is the pursuit of digital printing. Print on demand enables quick, affordable and flexible production of low print runs and minimises the cost-intensive risks for publishers such as print run calculations and warehousing costs. Authors profit from these developments (additional publishing possibilities, increased participation in the book production process via digital production and distribution processes) however they carry a higher risk too since they need to make payments further in advance than ever before. The effects of technical innovation on the European and American book market and on literary production are still to be researched.

1.2 The Publishers as actors market their products in quite different ways. Among their marketing strategies are launching their best sellers as well as new forms of product marketing and securing customer contacts via the use of social networks. Digital multimedia publishing catalogues also take account of changing reading habits. A challenge for research too is set by the ambivalent prognoses in the face of the changes in the book market. Do the possibilities of new media represent a democratisation of the literary field or does concentration on best sellers in the publishers catalogues and in bookshops mean rather an increased barrier to entry? Still to be researched is the role which the publishers and agents play in the marketing of international best sellers.

The areas where literary agents are active have also changed, especially as the internet opens a scope far exceeding the national marketing channels. The practices laid down in the RTG make it possible for graduate researchers to examine these effects of literary dissemination on the book and publishing trades and involve these practical experiences in their research work.

1.3 Different media formats have gained importance in recent times. Among the most popular forms of digital dissemination are the diverse possibilities of literary adaptation which have made a decisive contribution to the popularisation and nullification of the difference between high and low culture. Audio books have conquered the market in many countries and are, like the E-book not occupying the places of the traditional print media but instead are supplementary. Interactive media such as computer games also draw on literary texts as do films - and conversely, the media transition is observable in the opposite direction in the form of novelisation of films and computer games. The selection criteria for literary film adaptations are unchartered. Adaptations which cannot always be explained by the success of the book on which the film is based, as well as the question as to how and for what reasons successful European literary film adaptations are once more turned into films at almost exactly the same point in time.

2 New and modernised ways of non-commercial literary Dissemination are also to be researched by the RTG.

2.1 The conditions and means by which different facilities of literary dissemination function on the internet are to be researched. In this manner for example less lucrative literary genres find new ways to get published on online platforms in communities or online magazines. Poetry is meanwhile mostly published online in Great Britain, Canada and Australia. As a result of this development there is a lack of scientific research into contemporary anglophone poetry. Accompanying possibilities for publishing extending or replacing the traditional methods are alternative forms of text formatting. Among these are parallel presentations of voice and writing, for example those made available on the audio platform lyrikline.org.

The internet presence of authors also represent a worthwhile subject for projects. Beside publishers announcements about authors there are also their own self-staged appearances and self-marketing as well as paratexts with additional information which are available at all times.

2.2 Organisations for non-commercial literary dissemination with a dominant presentation function are for example houses of literature and literature festivals and museums. The popularity of author readings, poetry slams and literary festivals confirms on the one hand the renaissance of listening which is observable in many and varied cultural contexts. The new forms of literary dissemination also support this, at schools and universities such as poetry lectures and writers in residence programs. On the other hand severe infrastructural innovations have changed the literary event culture considerably in recent years. With houses of literature, communal organisations have established themselves since the 1980s in Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Scandinavia which are dedicated first and foremost to literary events such as author readings or book presentations. Even if the first research as to the politics of promotion and canonisation function of literature houses are available, these institutions are still under-researched. Examinations of literary Museums and literary Memorials (for example literary memorial places, houses of writers, literary houses, literary events) and research on the numerous literary Society forms are, above all with the backdrop of the input of digital media, an equally pressing and desirable research subject. In particular, work which deals with new concepts of exhibitions on an academic basis is missing.

2.3 Among the organisations of non-commercial literary dissemination with a dominant archive or storage function are archives and libraries. The diverse possibilities of archiving and storage add to a new dimension of the circulation and conservation of literature. Although virtual libraries and databases have made access to even canonised as well as remote literature much easier, due to the rapid development of technology there is also the risk of loss. Furthermore not all organisations state their criteria for the selection made. In the face of the great number of digitalisation projects there is also the question, to what extent canonised texts are confirmed or to what extent canons are revised. The possibilities of digital archiving have also not been extensively examined for the constitution of a cultural memory as well as the reaction of literary archives and libraries to the challenge of long term archiving. From a foreign language philological perspective there is also the question as to how far national criteria play a role in museums' literary dissemination.