1st International Egodocumental Network Conference
Vilnius University, Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń, the University of Lodz, and the Egodocumental Research Group (https://egodocuments.umk.pl) organise an international conference focusing on research, development, and changing perceptions of egodocuments in the twenty-first century. The conference aims to bring together scholars from different disciplines to share their insights and to encourage interdisciplinary studies of egodocuments.
The conference will also be the first meeting of the International Egodocumental Network established in December 2023 by the Egodocumental Research Group (Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń and the University of Lodz) to unite scholars from different disciplines working on egodocuments. It provides a platform for discussion, collaboration, and exchange of information between the participants, as well as online research seminars organized twice a year. In this dimension, our conference continues two editions of the Scientific Symposium "Egodocuments, Life-Writing and Autobiographical Texts..." organized at NCU in Toruń in 2022 and 2024.
Keynote speakers
Dr. Nataliia Voloshkova
Kazimierz Wielki University and Oxford Brookes University
Prof. Leona Toker
Hebrew University and Shalem Academic College
Prof. François-Joseph Ruggiu
Sorbonne Université, CNRS and Oxford University
Stephan Sander-Faes
University of Bergen
Vintage Postcards as Egodocuments Snapshots in Time from the Erich Sonntag Postcard Collection
In my proposed contribution, I wish to introduce picture postcards as a distinct category of sources. Invented in the late 1860s, they became ubiquitous from the turn of the twentieth century, and, at that time, featured an ever-growing variety of images on the front side, resulting in the creation of the picture postcard known today. While their study has increased in recent years – e.g., Alison Rowley’s Open Letters (2013), Maren Röger’s Karten in the Moderne (2023) – the use of vintage picture postcards as historical evidence is still in its infancy.
Last year I came into possession of a fairly large picture postcard collection. Compiled meticulously over decades by Erich Sonntag (1922–1988), the fruits of his labour – his collection of approx. 40,000 postcards covering the period from 1902 through the mid1980s – forms the basis for my ongoing book project. Tentatively entitled “Armchair Travels Across the 20th Century”, one of the key features of the collection is that many of these picture postcards are, in fact, little egodocuments that straddle the boundaries of a public-private (self-)identity, across linguistic and national borders, as well as across time, space, and perceptions.
