IN-PERSON: Prague – Section A

Abstract

Edinburgh, like Prague, is a UNESCO City of Literature. Its literary identity, then, is rooted in the cultural heritage of its cityscape: tours show off buildings which housed or inspired authors, and heritage sites emphasise literary objects’ links to the city. Yet bookshops are also important to Edinburgh’s literary landscape. And through sales, these provide a (seemingly paradoxically mass-produced) encounter with literary heritage’s core tenet: the literature itself. Although literature is encountered in material ways, the specific copy of a book is less relevant to the text within. This gestures towards an intangibility, for it is the reproducible stories, and the way they inspire imaginations, which make literature into heritage. In my talk, then, I will try to reconcile literary heritage as both placed and placemaking in Edinburgh, but also intangible, imaginative, and individually experienced. The literary city clearly has power, given the existence of cities of literature, but understanding literature in this way allows it to be encountered beyond established topics and routes. Furthermore, Edinburgh’s literary heritage culture has traditionally been rooted in objects, but conceptualising literary heritage as intangible heritage creates new possibilities for interpretation. For instance, deemphasising the importance of ‘authentic’ things creates space for new voices. Authors who have not left what Walter Benjamin calls ‘spoils’ may newly be represented in literary heritage sites, and digital interpretation allows the scope of bookshop shelves to be evoked in limited space. The breadth of a city’s literary heritage can therefore represent more of its citizens than ever.