The emergence of modern documentary poetics is often attributed to twentieth-century writers who were interested in redefining the purpose and limits of artistic expression, a redefinition that occurred in the context of labor exploitation, racial violence, and ethnic cleansing. This panel asks participants to consider the nineteenth-century precursors of modern documentary literature. How and to what ends do documents and literature intersect throughout the long nineteenth century? What constitutes a document and how might this definition enable new ways of interrogating issues of race, gender, class, indigeneity, and ethnicity? What formal features and aesthetic innovations emerge during the nineteenth century? In what ways do archival processes of collection and preservation influence the ability of authors to speak for or about people both dead and still living? What role does the intersection of documents and literature have in the exploration of slavery, Civil War, expansion, relocation, and imperial ambition?

These are just some of the questions presenters are encouraged to explore. This panel also invites papers that consider the following topics:

• the aesthetics of documentation
• precursors to “Objectivist” poetry and modern documentary poetics
• literatures of testimony and witness
• material textual approaches to the study of documents and literature
• intersections of technology, literature, and culture
• hybrid literary texts
• formal experimentation
• documents as memorials
• digital humanities approaches to the study of documentary literature
• archives and preservation
• data collection and/or analysis

To submit a proposal, please send a title and abstract of no more than 250 words to Alexander J. Ashland (ajashland@viterbo.edu). Please use “ALA Panel 2025 Submission” in the subject line. The deadline for submissions is Jan. 30.