Incipit

Created in 2015, Incipit is a series of dialogic texts in which the Editor invites colleagues to debate a matter of primary concern to the field. For the first iteration, participants composed their initial essays without knowing the identity of their interlocutor; the ensuing conversation took place in person. Subsequent dialogues have tended to take place electronically, with the identity of the dialogue partner known in advance. The same general ground rules apply: initial essays are written without knowing what the other person will write and, to capture the liveliness of the dialogue, authors are encouraged to respond without slowing down for bibliographical references (which the Editorial Board compiles behind the scenes).

The dialogues in this series are:

2024: Jacques-David Ebguy et Juliette Grange, "Incipit: Lire la littérature du dix-neuvième siècle avec la philosophie?"

2021: Thomas C. Connolly and Liesl Yamaguchi, "Incipit: On Poetry and Crisis”

2019: two dialogues…

 roundtable (Colin Foss, François Proulx, Raisa Rexer, Jennifer Tanner, moderated by Rachel Mesch), “Incipit: Reflections on Gender Studies in Our Field”

 Marie-Pierre Le Hir et Guillaume Pinson, “Incipit: L’Évolution du savoir et des sciences culturelles au XXIe siècle”

2018: two dialogues…

 William Paulson and Caroline Weber, “Incipit: The Nineteenth Century (Mis)Reading the Eighteenth”

 Gerald Prince and Debarati Sanyal, “Incipit: The Twentieth and Twenty-First Centuries (Mis)Reading the Nineteenth”

2017: Ross Chambers and Robert St. Clair, “Incipit: On Reading (Chambers)”

2016: David F. Bell and Catherine Witt, “Incipit: On the Present and Future of the Field”