(5) Material hermeneutics: Writing instruments, literature carriers, and literary objects

The DLA houses literature in its various material forms of production and presentation. Using approaches taken from material studies, these forms can be described and researched as independent (even auratic) objects; the special approach of the archive is to connect them simultaneously with the authors and the literary works to which they refer, so that both object and literature shed light on each other. In recent years, the DLA has increasingly focused its research on authors’ libraries. 

Since 2024 the DLA has been cooperating with the Excellence Cluster »Understanding Written Artefacts« at the University of Hamburg. In order to create conditions for further material-related research projects at the DLA and with external partners, we are engaging with other collecting institutions on questions of cataloguing and digitizing large image and object collections. New cataloguing projects and virtual research spaces on specific object groups (e.g. writing instruments, book cover designs, and death masks) are planned.