International Center for Cultural Studies

側記｜The Future of The Past: Preserving Women’s Writing in Digital Humanities – Project Knjiženstvo

2025-04-21

活動名稱｜The Future of The Past: Preserving Women’s Writing In Digital Humanities – Project Knjiženstvo

日期時間｜2025年4月21日下午 5:00

地點｜線上

講者｜Dr. Biljana Dojčinović (Full professor, Department of Comparative Literature and Theory of Literature, Faculty of Philology, University of Belgrade, Serbia)

主持人｜Merima Omeragić (Postdoctoral Fellow, International Center for Cultural Studies, National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University)

主辦單位｜國立陽明交通大學文化研究國際中心

側記｜Merima Omeragić

活動資訊｜連結

活動照片｜連結

所屬子計畫｜藝術介入與社會行動

子計畫主持人｜賴雯淑

The session “The Future of the Past: Preserving Women’s Writing in Digital Humanities – Project Knjiženstvo” was held on April 21, 2025, at 5PM in online format. The event was centered on a speech with the same title that was led by dr Biljana Dojčinović, full professor at Department of Comparative Literature and Theory of Literature, at University of Belgrade, Serbia. The session was moderated by Dr. Merima Omeragić, a postdoctoral researcher at the International Center for Cultural Studies at National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University.

The session opened with an introductory presentation by Dr. Omeragić, who provided a brief overview of the lecturer’s professional background. Dr. Biljana Dojčinović was one of the founders of the Women’s Studies Center in Belgrade, as well as the Indoc Center in the Association for Women’s Initiative. She was the director of the national project Кnjiženstvo – Theory and History of Women’s Writing in Serbian until 1915 (www.knjizenstvo.rs) and the founder and the first editor-in-chief of Knjiženstvo, Journal for Studies in Literature, Gender and Culture (www.knjizenstvo.rs/magazine.php). She is a member of the CEEPUS Network Women Writers in History and the Women Writer’s Route project certified by the European Commission. She has also been a member of John Updike Society since its founding, one of the editors of John Updike Review since 2010, and one of the JUS directors since 2015. She has published seven academic books. The books she edited, independently or in cooperation within the Knjiženstvo project, can be found at the link http://www.knjizenstvo.rs/sr/izdanja. Additionally, the moderator unveiled the structure and format of the forthcoming work, emphasizing active engagement from the audience in the following discussion.

In her lecture, Professor Dojčinović focused on the Knjiženstvo academic platform about gender, literature, and culture, which includes the electronic database, publications and journal Knjiženstvo. Data base Knjiženstvo, theory and history of women’s writing in Serbian until 1915 was created in 2011 as the research project of the same title, financed by The Ministry of Education and Science, 2011-2019. The project has been built as an endeavor to rediscover, preserve, and promote women’s writing, recreating the female literary tradition in Serbian culture. In addition to database, an electronic journal Knjiženstvo, which is a journal for studies in literature, gender and culture, was established (www.knjizenstvo.rs/magazine.php). The idea of database about the women writers who had written in Serbian or the languages which preceded it, in the period since Middle Age until the beginning of 20th century, emerged during the cooperation within the COST Action Women Writers in History which had a similar data about European Women Writers. The research project Knjiženstvo – Theory and History of Women’s Writing in Serbian until 1915 uses new theoretical models within a contemporary technological environment – the digital database. The project examines the possibilities of gender theory to the research of literature written by women, to the reception of women’s writing and the influence of women’s creativity. The Knjiženstvo project is associated with COST action IS0901 Women Writers in History: Toward a New Understanding of European Literary Culture, which includes a database of European women’s literature written until 1900 Women Writers in History. The aim of Knjiženstvo project is to highlight the history of women’s literature and to theorize its specificities by transforming the existing, mostly Western, concepts and models.

Similar project were rejected over 30 years ago and there was no database before 2011. The term Knjiženstvo is of Renaissance Dubrovnik’s language origin and is defined as literature. Thanks to the project and its similarity to the word “ženstvo” in the meaning femininty, it stands for Women’s writing and research of women’s writing. The project logo, featuring a tulip, is described, with its origins tracing back to a motif commonly seen on world-famous rugs originating from the Serbian city of Pirot. The tulip represents the intersection of women’s activities, weaving, and the writing process.

The research was primarily based on two sources: the almanac Srpkinja (Serbian Women, 1913), and a bibliography of women’s books published Bibliografija knjiga ženskih pisaca štampanih u Vojvodini, Srbiji, Južnoj Srbiji i Crnoj Gori do svršetka 1935 (1936).

The database contains information on the work of more than 170 Serbian women writers and authors from the Middle Ages to 1915. This includes basic biographical and bibliographic data, data on translations, women’s journals, ties with other women writers, both Serbian and foreign, as well as mutual influences and links leading to digitized texts. The digital database continues the tradition of de-hierarchized articles on women’s literary and artistic work, such as lists and bibliographies of women’s works, written from the end of the 19th to the end of the 20th century, emphasizing at the same time the need to constantly complement and upgrade the database, which is enabled by this medium. This presents a counter-canon and a challenge to the national literary canon.

Access to Knjiženstvo database is free. The information it contains is the result of the work done by a group of researchers gathered around the Knjiženstvo project. All interested researchers are invited to use the collected data, provided that they state the database as a reference. Knjiženstvo database is under construction; its data are being entered gradually. During the lecture, the method of searching the database was highlighted. Upon selecting any of the displayed fields, such as “Author”, “Works”, “Reception” or “Serial Publications”, the user is granted access to the data.

In 2019, this project was closed by the Ministry of Education and Science. Project Knjiženstvo was awarded by the “Anđelka Milić” Award in February 2020 for the creation and dissemination of gender knowledge.

In addition to focusing on developing the digital base, the Knjiženstvo platform also included other forms of work, such as GynoCentric Walks in Belgrade and the launch of the GynoCentric Belgrade Interactive Map, which was presented during lecture. Within the scope of the Knjiženstvo platform, another representative event was the organization of an exhibition on women writers. The exhibition Staze, spone, spoznaje (Paths, Ties, and Discoveries: Three Authors from Serbia on the Women Writers Route) opened at the National Library of Serbia in December, 2022. The exhibition is part of the project Women Writers Route, launched by the initiative of the Forum of Slavic Cultures. This is one of the 48 cultural routes of the Council of Europe and one of around a dozen that pass through Serbia. This route links seven Slavic countries and fourteen women writers. In the Serbian part of this route, this exhibition features the works of Jelena J. Dimitrijević (1862-1945), Isidora Sekulić (1877-1958) and Desanka Maksimović (1898-1993).

In the context of legacy, in addition to the digital base, a special aspect of the work is represented by the publications. Among the scientific publications, the Proceedings Knjiženstvo, teorija i istorija ženske književnosti na srpskom jeziku do 1915 (2015) are particularly noteworthy. At the same time, the project supported the publication of the first editions and reprints of the works of the women writer Jelena J. Dimitrijević. The lecturer, Professor Dojčinović, presented the work of the aforementioned writer and demonstrated her position in the database. She expanded the focus of her work from the base to research coordinates. On the one hand, there was a need to remove her from a marginal position; on the other hand, Dimitrijević was used as an example of intervention in the canon by affirming and including her works in educational programs and textbooks.

The third basic aspect of the project and the Knjiženstvo platform is the research work, which is concentrated around a scientific journal. Knjiženstvo, Journal for Studies in Literature, Gender and Culture is a free-access double-blind peer-reviewed electronic journal whose aim is to affirm interdisciplinary studies of women’s presence and work in literature, art and culture, as well as the field of digital humanities. The journal encourages cooperation in the study of gender in all languages, across various cultures and time periods. The editorial staff of the journal is particularly interested in innovative contributions of potential authors and is committed to the advancing of academic standards and the fight against every form of discrimination.

The future of the database and the journal is important for the culture and its history, especially for the women’s part in it. The impact of the new knowledge about women’s writing on mainstream culture and academic research, however, is still not strong, and thus we must ask ourselves: what is the future of the rediscovered past, what do we do to unlock the literary canon and to change both the past and the future of women’s writing, and what is the role of digital humanities in these processes? In addressing these dilemmas, the primary focus is on the following: securing funding for the data base to ensure its growth, securing funding for the site and journal, application at all levels of teaching, application outside Academia and schools, being present on the internet, and protection of legal rights.

In the last section the audience raised an important question related to the presented topic. The following questions were addressed to professor Biljana Dojčinović, who was asked to share her expertise in the field of women writers research, as well on her experience in project management. In the ongoing dialogue concerning the future of knowledge in the digital age and its relationship to history, particular emphasis was placed on the analysis of database utilization, as well as user feedback regarding the database’s potential and visibility. In contrast to a digital database, the Knjiženstvo Journal for Studies in Literature, Gender and Culture has particular development indicators, which are evident in indexing in pertinent databases such as EBSCO, Erih Plus and Scopus. A particularly significant issue that was addressed was the challenge of short-term financing for projects, such as the Knjiženstvo, which require alternative funding sources to ensure their continued existence and advancement. Consequently, there is an escalating sense of anxiety regarding their uncertainty in the digital realm. Another focal point of the discussion centered on the understanding of communication between academic and governmental institutions and their relationship to the project. In both cases, the attitude towards the project Knjiženstvo was built on the basis of prejudices targeting the research of women’s literature as something marginal and suspicious. At the initiative of the audience, Professor Dojčinović shed light on the relationships between national literatures in the areas we now call post-Yugoslav, and approaches to their study during the 20th century. In this regard, the lecturer employed examples of cultural contact to illuminate the transnational positions and actions of women writers. The participants of the discussion have put forward a series of initiatives, including the organization of an exhibition of women writers from Serbia at the National Museum of Taiwan Literature, the creation of a mobile application to be used in the educational setting, and the research of women writers in Serbia in the period 1915-1964. Moreover, professor Dojčinović offers her perspective on the preservation of collected data outside the digital world. The discussion concluded with her emphasizing the significance of interest in studying women authors in Serbian literature, as well as women writers in the context of comparative literature. Professor Dojčinović also encouraged young researchers to become cognizant of women’s position in patriarchal societies and to play an active role in the preservation of women’s culture.

Further information on the platform, the digital database, and the journal Knjiženstvo, as well as contact information, can be found here:

www.knjizenstvo.rs

https://journal.knjizenstvo.rs/index.php/knjizenstvo

http://knjizenstvo.etf.bg.ac.rs/en