Being PracticalElectronic editions of Flemish literary texts anddocuments in an international perspective

Edward Vanhoutte

Director of Research & Publications, Royal Academy of Dutch Language & LiteratureHead, Centre for Scholarly Editing and Document StudiesResearch Associate, UCL Centre for Digital HumanitiesEditor-in-Chief, LLC. The Journal of Digital Scholarship in the Humanities

edward.vanhoutte@kantl.be@evanhoutte

Wonne & SenneFridge explorers

Pictures harvested from the InternetType “fridge” on Google.

Pictures harvested from the InternetType “fridge” on Google.

CSE 1997The contents should:A. include logically selected, manageable textual content -- e.g., an edition of a single work, a group of works generically or chronologically grouped;B. include, when appropriate, authorial documents in addition to basic text(s), such as adaptations, working notes, contracts, tables of contents, prefaces, abstracts;C. present appropriate second-party textual materials -- e.g., letters from respondents may be desirable in an edition of letters;D. include the editorial materials required by the kind of edition envisaged -- e.g., [1] prefaces and acknowledgements; [2] lists of sigla, symbols, and abbreviations; [3] textual essay; [4] textual apparatus (or the functional equivalent, e.g., hypertext links) and/or notes; [5] historical/interpretive essay(s); [6] illustrations or charts, diagrams, maps; [7] historical/explanatory notes; [8] appendices; [9] bibliography; [10] glossary; [11] index(es);E. be logically arranged and easy to use;F. include appropriate analytical and text retrieval tools, either as part of the edition itself or as part of the access package for which the edition is designed (e.g., network browsers).

CSE 2006● Accuracy● Adequacy● Appropriateness● Consistency● Explicitness

with the tools of social media at its centre, the social edition is process-driven, privileging interpretative changes based on the input of many readers; text is fluid, agency is collective, and many readers/editors, rather than single editor, shape what is important and, thus, broaden the editorial lens as well as the breadth, depth, and scope of any edition produced in this way.

(Siemens et al., forthcoming)

The problem of two audiences

• Peers

• Common Reader

maximal edition● academic product● research data● scholarly accuracy and scrutiny● attitude towards problems and theories of the text ● history of the text

→ Expert Reader

The problem of two natures

The problem of two naturesminimal edition● cultural product● reading edition

→ Common Reader

The problem of two natures

• Minimal edition: reading edition

• Maximal edition: variorum edition

The problem of two audiences and natures

• Minimal edition:

→ Reading edition

→ Common reader

• Maximal edition:

→ Variorum edition

→ Peers

1. Editors of the same text

2. Editors of the same author

3. Editors with related textual problems

4. Technology curious

Peers

Paul Snoek

(1933-1981)

Jos De Haes

(1920-1974)

Eddy Van Vliet(1942-2002)

Paul Snoek

(1933-1981)

1,126 copies three months

Jos De Haes

(1920-1974)

585 copies three years

Eddy Van Vliet(1942-2002)756 copiesthree years

Sold 3,800 copies over 2 years

Sold 300 copies each

- republication of first print edition- variants- documentary: genetic essay / contemporary reviews / biographical details- essays

Sold ca. 1,000 copies over 4 years

● Buyers of books are not interested in literature, they’re interested in books as physical objects.

● Buyers of literature are not interested in a reliable text specifically, but in any easily acquirable text.

De Smedt, Marcel & Vanhoutte, Edward (2000). Stijn Streuvels, De Teleurgang van den Waterhoek. Elektronisch-kritische editie/electronic-critical edition.Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press/KANTL

Willem Elsschot, Achter de Schermen. Elektronische editie, bezorgd door Peter de Bruijn, Vincent Neyt en Dirk Van Hulle. Universtiteit Antwerpen/Huygens Instituut, 2007.

Knowledge siteThe space and shape I will try to describe is one where textual archives serve as a base for scholarly editions which serve in tandem with every other sort of literary scholarship to create knowledge sites of current and developing scholarship that can also serve as pedagogical tools in an environment where each user can choose an entry way, select a congenial set of enabling contextual materials, and emerge with a personalized interactive form of the work (serving the place of the well-marked and dog-eared book), always able to plug back in for more information or different perspectives. (Peter Shillingsburg, From Gutenberg to Google. Electronic Representations of Literary Texts. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006, p. 88)

Fluid, co-operative and distributed editions• Realizes Shillingsburg’s concept of knowledge sites through the formation of active on-line communities• Lavagnino’s suggestion of a model for electronic editions based on interactive, collaborative work on texts• Shillingsburg’s concepts of the convenient and the practical edition • Fredson Bowers’ concept of the ‘practical edition’

present to a broad audience as sound a text (usually modernized and at a minimum price) as is consistent with information that may be procurable through normal scholarly channels and thus without more special research than is economically feasible.

(Bowers, 1969, p. 26)

Swimming

• Michael Sperberg-McQueen :

• Why not to Teach Your Edition How to Swim

• How to Teach Your Edition How to Swim

• Peter Robinson

• Teach our editions to swim to the readers

• Why Editors Have to Learn to Swim

Why the Audience Have to Learn to SwimDetailed manuals

• outline the functionalities of the edition in detail

• explain the anticipated audience

• how they can make use of the knowledge which has been put into the edition

• how they can operate the included tools

• how they can replicate the editor’s research

• how they can interact with the edition

• how they can contribute to the edition.

Why the Audience Have to Learn to Swim

Papers and essays• Examples

• Triggers

• Communication

Education