The main objective of the Action is to create a strong collaborative international Research Network and to produce a Road Map outlining future systematic collaborative research in European women’s literary history. The historiography of literature needs renewal. In particular women’s contribution to European literary practice can and must be accounted for in a much more adequate way than current literary histories do. This COST Action lays the foundations for an innovative European-scale approach to this problem. The neglect of women as cultural agents is indeed an international phenomenon, directly relating to gender inequality in modern societies. International cooperation is needed in order to change things and demonstrate that women’s growing presence, since the Middle Ages, prepared the way for their massive entrance into the “literary field” (Bourdieu) during the 20th century. Using recent theoretical insights (Moretti, Hutcheon, Valdés) and new technological means, the Action will prepare avenues for collective research by organizing a strong network of European (and other) researchers. At the end of the Action the network will be ready to carry out a large European research programme that contributes to a more balanced picture of – western and eastern – Europe’s cultural heritage).
Literary historiography - cultural transfer - women’s writing - reception history - ICT-applications in the Humanities.
