The latest issue of Comma, dedicated to Literary Archives, is available online for members.
Preface by David Sutton
This special issue of Comma devoted to literary archives has been devised and written mostly by active members of the Section for Archives of Literature and Art (SLA) of the International Council on Archives (ICA) and in particular by the new team which took responsibility for rebuilding the Section from 2010 onwards. The institutions which are the principal collectors of literary archives vary considerably from country to country, and this is described in more detail in the article by Veno Kauaria and David Sutton.
In many countries the principal responsibility for literary archives rests with the national library, with the national archives playing a supporting role. In some of the wealthier collecting countries (notably the USA, Canada and the UK) the role of university libraries is of primary importance. In countries where the main literary language in Spanish or Portuguese, literary foundations and institutes tend to play an important part and may even, as in Brazil, predominate. Archival collections in writers’ houses and in literary museums are significant in some countries (notably in China, Japan and South Korea), whilst France presents what appears to be a unique example in its prioritization of public libraries as collecting institutions – usually the public library, now often described as a médiathèque, in the town in which the author was born. Finally, a few countries have archival institutions, not museums, which are entirely devoted to literary archives – of which the best known examples may be the Deutsches Literaturarchiv Marbach; the Schweizerische Liter-aturarchiv (also known by the same initials as our Section, SLA); the Literaturarchiv of the Österreichische Nationalbibliothek and the Institut Mémoires de l’édition contemporaine (IMEC) in Caen, Normandy, France.
Follow this link to authentify yourself as a member of ICA on the Liverpool University Press website and read this issue of Comma
Content
Literary archives around the world: the view from Namibia by Veno V. Kauaria and David Sutton
Learning and teaching with literary archivesby Heather Dean
Keeping born-digital literary and artistic archives in an imperfect world: theory, best practice and good enoughs by Sebastian Gurciullo
Outside the margins and beyond the page: complex digital literature, the new horizon for acquisition, conservation, curation and research by Catherine Hobbs and Sara Viinalass-Smith
What to do with literary manuscripts? A model for manuscript studies after 1700 by Wim Van Mierlo
Where are our heroes, martyrs and monuments? Archives of authors, publishers and editors from the Caribbean diaspora in London institutions by Deborah Jenkins
Literary correspondence: letters and emails in Caribbean writing by Marta Fernández Campa
Archives at risk: addressing a global concern by Jens Boel and David C. Sutton
Management of archival literary sources: the Greek approach by Marietta Minotos and Anna Koulikourdi
Research, re-cataloguing and acquisition policy: new developments at the Archive of the Finnish Literature Society by Katri Kivilaakso
Архивы культуры в России by Т.М. Горяева
Building on the Huntington Library’s literary foundation by Sara S. Hodson
A location list of literary archives in Brazil by Luciana Negrini and David Sutton