The Entries

Many of our entries will be English translations of text excerpts of 200–1000 words. But many of our sources will be oral histories, material objects such as a musical instrument, or perhaps some other non-discursive iconography. All of these, whether texts, oral histories, artefacts, or images, will be followed by (a) a commentary (500–1000 words) that puts the source into historical and theoretical context; (b) an optional glossary in the right hand margin to define or explain key technical terms; and (c) a bibliography of up to 5 recommended readings. In addition, the book will have substantial topical and geographical indices.

This will be a large and ambitious project. We estimate that the entries will be about 250 in number, and the total length of the project will be in the range of 450,000 words. We anticipate there will be at least 100 images that will need to be reproduced in our volume. While we would prefer if possible to make this a single-volume publication, we recognize that its size may make it necessary to be produced in two or even three volumes. This remains a question to be negotiated with the publisher as our project gets closer to completion.

Finally, with the assistance of the Center for Digital Scholarship in the Division of Humanities at the University of Chicago and in collaboration with the Max Planck Institute for Empirical Aesthetics, we plan on building an open access companion website that will host all the sources contained in our anthology, with texts offered both in their original language and in English translation. These texts will be completely searchable, and where possible, linked to other relevant online platforms and bibliographies. We are also committed to publishing the volume open access.