Join us for a talk by Mads Rosendahl Thomsen, Professor of Comparative Literature at Aarhus University and Director of the Danish National Research Foundation-funded center TEXT: Center for Contemporary Cultures of Text (2025-). 

We have quickly adapted to the fact that texts may or may not be written by humans alone. In many domains—technical documentation, customer service, and even journalism—this is now relatively uncontroversial. But when it comes to literature, the question of what an author is, or ought to be, remains highly charged. The stakes are cultural as well as aesthetic, tied to long-held values around creativity, authenticity, and expression.

In this talk, I begin by tracing a prehistory of fascination with non-human or impersonal writing, particularly in avant-garde art and literature—from automatic writing and Dada cut-ups to algorithmic composition.

Building on that history, I present a typology of contemporary writer profiles, distinguished by their relationship to artificial intelligence in the writing process. From those who reject its use entirely in the name of authenticity to those who embrace it in various degrees.