Books are deeply intertwined with the societies that produce them. Besides the unmistakable benefits leisure reading can give to individuals, such as literacy, creativity, imagination, knowledge...Show moreBooks are deeply intertwined with the societies that produce them. Besides the unmistakable benefits leisure reading can give to individuals, such as literacy, creativity, imagination, knowledge and empathy, this free time activity has an impact on a higher level too. The written word enables connections between individuals and communities in ways that were unimaginable before the Print Revolution. Books can encompass the values of a nation, they can communicate and reinforce them. These aspects are especially important in the case of a small nation with a distinct language, as a strong need of cultural preservation is present. The main focus of this thesis is the two-way connection between a country’s reading culture and its social, political and economic realms. It is based on the argument that participants of the reading landscape not only affect the readers with their actions, but have an indirect impact on the wider cultural system through the reading landscape. The means to support this argument is an analysis of the literary landscape of Hungary, based on a self-constructed model, the Reading Promotion Impact Matrix. The two dimensions of this model are the nation’s core values that are supported and reflected by the reading promotion efforts; and the areas that can impact and can be impacted by these reading promotion activities. The thesis also highlights the interactivity and interconnectedness of the participants of a country’s literary landscape.Show less
In recent decades, our understanding of archives has evolved beyond the familiar, institutional archive carefully tended to by a small group of trained professionals. Movements such as...Show moreIn recent decades, our understanding of archives has evolved beyond the familiar, institutional archive carefully tended to by a small group of trained professionals. Movements such as postcolonialism and postcustodialism, combined with the digital turn, have allowed interest in other, less conventional forms of archiving to emerge. As such, the concept of an archival continuum (that is, the understanding of archives as evolving and participatory systems rather than fixed institutions) has been accepted by archival scholarship. This thesis investigates whether printed family memoirs that incorporate visual material from family archives can be placed along said archival continuum. Four such memoirs – The Hare with Amber Eyes (2010), In Memory of Memory (2018), Heimat: A German Family Album (2018), and Letters to Camondo (2021) – have been selected as case studies by which to examine their potential archival and evidentiary value. Each memoir is a work of postmemory – following Marianne Hirsch, the authors are processing generational trauma passed down as a result of the Holocaust. I argue that it is not only the narratives that lend them archival value, but also their inclusion of archival material. As I will show, understanding published memoirs as archives supports an expanded recognition of non-professional memory work as archival. Importantly, the increased accessibility of published memoirs to a general audience versus that of conventional archives allows for greater interaction with the preserved objects, and so aids in supporting the societal memorialization of the Holocaust. By focusing on the paper editions of the books, I am able to examine the unique benefits and challenges of the printed book as a form of accessible archive and memory object.Show less
Preprints are complete scholarly manuscripts that have not (yet) been through a formal peer review process and are made publicly available, often by uploading them to a preprint server, which can...Show morePreprints are complete scholarly manuscripts that have not (yet) been through a formal peer review process and are made publicly available, often by uploading them to a preprint server, which can be accessed without any limitations. During the COVID-19 pandemic, preprints gained popularity because they allow for rapid dissemination of research, which was vital at that point. Yet, this increased popularity of preprints does not appear to have lessened since the recent end of the pandemic and it is not expected that it will rapidly diminish either. Instead, it has even spread to fields that have arguably had little to do with COVID research. It would appear that the pandemic was the boost preprints needed to become more widely accepted across many academic fields. Now, many contemporary critics argue that preprints are becoming ‘a common part of the scholarly publishing process’ and are referring to preprints as an ‘important tool’ in scholarly publishing, a way to ‘complement’ the current system. This thesis analyses which functions of academic publishing are complemented by preprints and in what way they prove to be important tools within the existing system. In order to do so, the thesis commences with a comparative analysis of five separate theories regarding what the functions of (academic) publishing are and builds a new theoretical framework with which to analyse preprints and their role.Show less
In the course of the twentieth century, digital multimodal longform journalism has grown to become one of the most consequential genres of online writing. From being a peripheral genre in the 1990s...Show moreIn the course of the twentieth century, digital multimodal longform journalism has grown to become one of the most consequential genres of online writing. From being a peripheral genre in the 1990s, it is now an essential part of most news outlet’s digital platforms. The genre’s ascent, its connection with the digital advances of the last two decades, and its effect on readers has been closely followed and widely analyzed by media scholars. This thesis is especially concerned with the latter topic as it primarily explores what affordances of the digital multimodal longform genre contribute to immersion.Show less
This thesis explores how literature has represented AI and evaluates the effectiveness of computers in assisting us to answer this question. This representation is studied starting from the period...Show moreThis thesis explores how literature has represented AI and evaluates the effectiveness of computers in assisting us to answer this question. This representation is studied starting from the period just before it was born as a scientific discipline in 1956, and ending in 2015. It first sets out to examine both the optimistic and the fatalistic view of AI and traces the sources of the fear of AI, and then continues to use computational methods to research the portrayal of AI in fiction. To facilitate the analysis, 39 speculative fiction books were filtered and a file was created that contained sentences on AI in the books. This enabled a study of animacy, sentiments, emotions, and synonyms of ‘helpful and ‘doom’ across the corpus. During the study, the flaws of computational analysis are highlighted, especially its lack of interpretation skills and inability to fully understand context. Consequently, this provides difficulty in drawing definitive conclusions about AI’s representation specifically. Still, despite its limitations, the study is able to conclude that most AI-themed fiction conveys a positive message to the reader.Show less
