Genesis and Variance: From Letter to Literature Torsten Roeder 2017-10-20T23:40:51.940000000 Zentrum für Informationsmodellierung - Austrian Centre for Digital Humanities, Karl-Franzens-Universität Graz Austria Zentrum für Informationsmodellierung - Austrian Centre for Digital Humanities, Karl-Franzens-Universität Graz Austria GAMS - Geisteswissenschaftliches Asset Management System Creative Commons BY-NC 4.0 2019 Graz o:tei2019.138

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en textual variance textual genesis alignment critical apparatus 2019-08-13T17:31:34.109000000

Dr. Torsten Roeder

Genesis and Variance: From Letter to Literature

ABSTRACT: The paper examines the nature of textual genesis and textual variance, based on a letter which was later elaborated into an epistolary novel.

KEYWORDS: textual variance, textual genesis, alignment, critical apparatus

The study of textual genesis, as introduced by Karl LachmannCfr. Plachta, B. (2013). Editionswissenschaft. 3rd ed. Stuttgart: Reclam, 27–45. and pursued by many others, makes comprehensible that text is a dynamic medium. During its composition in temporal succession, text is constantly revised, reorganized, and reshaped. Within this process, even context and genre can be subject to change: drafts turn into stories, and whole novels derive from tiny notes.

Documents are what is left of such textual dynamics. Understood as physical manifestations of text, documents appear as stable entities, which can relatively easy be digitized, transcribed, and described. The current standard guidelines for text encoding seem ideal for both machine- and human-readable representations of documents, and they strongly support document-related studies of all disciplines.

However, in order to pursue the question of what “text really” might be, the encoding philologist should also take a look beyond the document and refocus the attention on the examination of textual processes.Cfr. Zanetti, S. (2012). Schreiben als Kulturtechnik. Berlin: Suhrkamp, 10–16. Which phenomena of dynamics can occur in text, and which encoding stategies are necessary to represent them? How could variance be described and classified, e. g. by distinguishing formal, stylistic, paratextual and contentwise variants?Roeder, T. (2018). Vom authentischen Brief zur durchgestalteten Literatur. [Blog] Digital Humanities am DHIP. Available at: [30 Nov. 2018]. Are the current standards sufficient to represent textual dynamicity, or do they favor document oriented, but less dynamic concepts of text?

The idea of this paper is based on an autobiographical text by Friedrich Rochlitz, an author of the early 19th century, who wrote an eye-witness report of the Battle of Leipzig (1813) to a close friend in Dresden.Roeder, T. (2018). Tage der Gefahr. [Blog] Digital Humanities am DHIP. Available at: [3 Oct. 2018]. During the siege, the letter could not be dispatched. Rochlitz continued writing his letter until the war was over, and finally, his friend received a very long and impressively detailed letter.SLUB Dresden, Mscr.Dresd.h.37,Verm.2°, Saxonica/Sammlungen zur Zeitgeschichte, Tagebuch von Rochlitz über die Begebenheiten in Leipzig (1813). Without the author’s consent, the letter was forwarded to other interested readers. Possibly due to positive feedback from the latter, Rochlitz decided to elaborate the letter into a novel, which was published first in 1816, and as a revised edition in 1822.Rochlitz, F. (1816). Tage der Gefahr. In: Neue Erzählungen, 2, Leipzig/Züllichau: Darnmannsche Buchhandlung, 149–365; Rochlitz, F. (1822). Tage der Gefahr. In: Auswahl des Besten aus Friedrich Rochlitzʼ sämmtlichen Schriften, 6, Züllichau: Darnmannsche Buchhandlung, 185–312.

While the variants between the two printed editions can be described and presented by means of a classical TEI inline apparatus,Cfr. TEI: Critical Apparatus. [online] P5 Guidelines for Electronic Text Encoding and Interchange Guidelines. Available at: [16 July 2019]. the textual difference between Rochlitz’ original letter and the first edition in print requires a standoff based alignment method, including ambiguities and uncertainties. But does it make sense to combine different encoding methods for one textual history? Does it make more sense to separate variants from witnesses? And which concept of textual dynamics is implied by the decision for a specific markup method?

Outgoing from recent research, the paper presents markup approaches, analysis toolsE.g. “TEICat: TEI Critical Apparatus Toolbox”, http://teicat.huma-num.fr; and “LERA: Locate, Explore, Retrace and Apprehend complex text variants”, https://lera.uzi.uni-halle.de. and presentation methodsA preliminal version which compares the two printed editions is available at: (password and username: “teiconf”); the original letter will be included until the conference. to examine the risen questions on textual genesis and variance, in order to broaden the understanding of textual dynamics for encoding editors and end users as well.

AUTHOR INFORMATION: Torsten Roeder graduated in musicology and Italian studies at the Humboldt University in Berlin. He works in the area of digital humanities since 2007, starting his career at the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities. His PhD thesis, presented at the University of Würzburg, is based on a TEI edition of 19th century music criticism. Currently he works as Digital Humanities officer at Leopoldina (German National Academy, Halle an der Saale).

Contact: torsten.roeder@leopoldina.org