<br /> # Quantum of Literature ### Empirical Data on a Theory of Text Length <br /><br /><br /> [Frank Fischer](https://www.hse.ru/en/org/persons/182492735) Higher School of Economics, Moscow (Twitter: [@umblaetterer](https://twitter.com/umblaetterer))<!-- .element: style="font-size:0.8em;" --> <br /><br /><br /><br /> [ACLA: On Length](https://www.acla.org/program-guide#/search/seminar/22441)  ·  Georgetown University, Washington 🇺🇸  ·  9 March 2019 -- By the way …  -- ## Itinerary <br /> 1. Terminology 2. The »Perfect Length« of a Novel? 3. Extreme Lengths: The Longest Novel in the World!!1! 🏆 4. Text Size and Canonisation: Operationalisation -- ## Text Extent: Functions and Properties <br /> 1. text extent influences processes of reception, interpretation, canonisation 2. the materiality of books brings with it a **dual nature** of text extent: variable-invariable (number of pages vs. number of words/characters) 3. text extent is not just bibliographic metadata, but part of the **paratext** (epitext and peritext) -- ## Clemens Brentano: »Godwi« (1801) <br /><br /> »This is the pond into which I fall on page 266 of the first volume [of this novel].« -- ### The Case of Peter Handke’s Novel <br />»Mein Jahr in der Niemandsbucht« <br />([»My Year In No Man’s Bay«](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Year_in_the_No-Man%27s-Bay)) <br /> - first edition of 1994: **1,067** pages - paperback edition of 2007: **628** pages - 1994 edition: fairly empty page layout (only 23 lines per book page) - narrator labels it (within the text of the novel!) as **»one of these indecently thick books«** (Handke 1994, p. 107) -- ## Guinness Book of Records  <small>http://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/longest-novel</small> -- ## The Discourse on Length Within Wikipedia  <smalL>https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_longest_novels</small> -- ## Two Metadata Sets <br /> * »1,001 Books You Must Read Before You Die«, ed. by Peter Boxall (362,597 pages) * all novels comprised in the catalogue of the German National Library since 1913 (180,000 novels, incl. different editions and translations) -- ### »1,001 Books«: Distribution of Numbers of Pages <!-- .element width="640px" --> 362,597 pages altogether. -- ### German National Library: <br />Distribution of Numbers of Pages <!-- .element width="640px" --> 180,000 novels altogether. -- ### Numbers of Pages: Peaks at Multiples of 16 <br /> <!-- .element width="640px" --> -- ### Text Size and Canonisation <br /> <!-- .element width="640px" --> -- ## Thanks.