DHQ: Digital Humanities Quarterly
2010
Volume 4 Number 1
Volume 4 Number 1
Digital Encoding as a Hermeneutic and Semiotic Act: The Case of Valerio Magrelli
Abstract
In this article we propose different methods of encoding, according to the TEI Guidelines, three different cases of genetic or compositional textual variants found in the autographs of the Italian contemporary poet Valerio Magrelli. These encoding experiments reflect the diverse nature of the artifacts and represent a critical assessment of the effectiveness of present encoding practices for the multidimensional and pragmatic aspects of authorial drafts. Thus far, it seems that the TEI has yet to offer a convincing theoretical model and adequate practical solutions for representing the complex temporal structures normally present in manuscripts, and in fluid textual traditions in general. Our conclusion is that there is a potential conflict between the linear and hierchical nature of current formal language systems such as XML, and the intrinsic dynamic nature of the writing process. In such cases we may have to rethink present models of document modeling, and to develop, within an adequate epistemological framework, a new theory of digital text.
1. Fluid Text and Markup Languages
In this paper we shall try to uncover, through some experiments in digital
text-encoding, the complex multidimensional and interactive reality of the process of
composition. This complexity emerges as a result of problems encountered in the
description and representation of a series of autographic literary texts. The
historical and theoretical background of our work is represented by various
philological-critical schools such as the Italian criticism of variants (critica delle varianti), French genetic criticism and the
Anglo-American tradition of textual bibliography.[1] Each one of these traditions
have developed, since the beginning of the 20th century, different critical
instruments and approaches; however they all seem to share a common idea: a literary
work (and in general every “script act”) can be regarded not merely as a
product, but as the result of a dynamic process of interaction between several
factors and influences of a linguistic, cultural and social nature.[2] This attention to processes is also studied in pragmatics [Austin 1976], whose contribution to the study of textual fluidity has
been explicitly recognised in the text-critical domain in a recent article by Peter
Shillingsburg [Shillingsburg 2006a].[3] Although there is no room
here to investigate the pragmatic aspects of autographic writing, it is obvious that
the typical illocutory and dialogic nature of the textual and graphic-semantic
elements of the avant-texte constitutes a relatively
fertile area for pragmatic analysis.[4] The avant-texte is a communicative
system: the signs on the manuscript page are primarily interpretations of
“actions,” and the dialogue involves the author not only as a subject in
multiple roles (author/reader, author/corrector, author/critic, etc.), but also in
triangular relations such as editor/author/editor as in the case of
proof-editing.
One of the main issues that emerged from our encoding experiment can also be
formulated as a question: can the multidimensional and pragmatic nature of different
writing stages/sketches be represented with the help of digital instruments? As we
will see, a tentative answer to this question leads to the admission that any
transformation from paper to bits, apart from leading to certain developments, all
potentially “intrusive” for the document, is no ordinary event, nor is it
technically neutral. The first stage is the conversion of the textual content and
structure of the original document into digital form. This process, far from
representing a simple copying of a document from one medium to another, is actually a
hermeneutic and semiotic process, for in the moment in which a text is transcribed
through the selection and the use of markup this creates meaning in itself. It is
also a pragmatic process, since markup is not only able to represent but also to
create actions [Renear 2005, 28]. In the words of
one of the Italian pioneers of humanities computing:
We must understand and keep in mind that at the moment of data entry the text (the entire quantity of information contained within it) is being entrusted to a different channel from that in which it has survived until now (if one of the elements of the system of communication changes, the others necessarily change as well). We must also always remember that transcription is in any case an interpretative act that manifests itself at the very moment in which we take any decision: from the simplest — is this element a full stop, the end of an abbreviation or a dash? – to the more complex — is this other case a verse, a single verse on two printed lines, or two verses? [Gigliozzi 1998, 228]
Such “decisions” imply a perspective, a selection of aspects, a method of
analysis and a choice of an encoding model, to arrive at a representation of the text
out of so many possibilities — an encoding that we realize through a markup language
permits us to formally describe the structure of a text, and to analyze the data in
depth. Its utility will be in proportion to how much information it can set out,
include and preserve. However, it will not be possible, and would hardly be
desirable, to represent all aspects an ideal reader would see in a text. The printing
bias has forced us to think of a text as a stable product, but if we either look at
the different historical representations of a given text or at its documented writing
stages, we realize that there is not one text, but many texts, as many as there are
mechanisms of writing, material production, intertextual paths and methodologies of
reconstruction.
Nowadays the most powerful device for the representation and digital analysis of
literary texts is XML (Extensible Markup Language), which provides a rigorous syntax
for representing the deep structure of a text. XML is a metalanguage, that is to say
a system for defining tags that describe the role played by every element within a
text. Apart from technical advantages (portability, standardisation, flexibility,
representational power) markup languages have been credited with allowing the scholar
to make his own interpretation of the text more explicit [Ciotti 2005, 9–42].
Of course, markup languages, like any other technological instrument, are not
perfect. They impose a hierarchical structure, which is normally used as a container
for the text.[5] This can lead to major difficulties in cases
where the text cannot be reduced to such a structure. The “well-formedness” of
XML, the requirement that every element, except for the document root, must be
contained in some other element, gives the text an explicit and unambiguous
structure. This principle is in contrast with what Buzzetti defines as the “dynamic instability of literary texts”
[Buzzetti 2002]. A number of recent papers have underlined the seriousness of the problems
that such dynamic instability poses for XML markup. For example, [Vetter and McDonald 2003] explore the main techniques for recording variants taken
from the TEI Guidelines, as well as several ad hoc methods for interlinking them in
the poetry of Emily Dickinson. They conclude rather negatively that no method for
recording Dickinson’s variants proves to be “entirely satisfactory”
[Vetter and McDonald 2003, 151]. [Vanhoutte 2006] likewise, in applying modern encoding
techniques to record the variation of the manuscript antecedents of a classic Flemish
novel, remarks, “The modern manuscript shows a much more
complicated web of interwoven and overlapping relationships of elements and
structures” [than the printed book]. And although not a case of a modern
manuscript, [Bart 2006] describes the problems of encoding variation in
the Ht manuscript of Piers Plowman, such as variation in line numbering and the
encoding of variants between physical versions, for which the author had often to
resort to “the shameless application of technical duct
tape.”
Specific cases can always be dismissed as anomalies, but these problems appear to be
serious enough to warrant further investigation. Since we work on modern manuscripts,
and on visualising the encoding of such texts, we are interested in discovering
whether the Text Encoding Initiative Guidelines (TEI)
are in fact sufficient to encode modern manuscript material. Investigation of
specific cases does have the advantage of providing a wealth of fine detail that
can’t be derived from purely theoretical or technical investigations.
The TEI offers a rich collection of guidelines, originally for the encoding of
ancient texts, although in later editions it has included specific guidelines for the
textual phenomena of modern and contemporary texts [Burnard & Bauman 2007, Ch. 11]. The encoding of these elements, which Vanhoutte calls the “temporal unity” of writing, is often problematic [Vanhoutte 2003, 12] or “very complicated, if not impossible”
[Pierazzo 2007, 151]. Any movement of the text forwards or backwards in
time (cf. below § 2.3) naturally tends to generate overlapping structures. However,
the spatial dimension can also represent a problem: we need only think of modern
poetic texts, in which it is often very difficult to recover the structure of a
composition in strophes and verses. The following paragraphs are an attempt to
confront these clashes of theory and practice via a case study: the encoding of three
compositions and their various writing phases by the Italian poet and writer Valerio
Magrelli.
2. TEI-XML Encoding of the Poetry of Valerio Magrelli
Our encoding experiment focuses on the three poems (“Molto
sottrae il sonno alla vita,”
“Essere matita è segreta ambizione,”
“Ecco la lunga palpebra della donna”) written between 1975
and 1979, which then appeared in the first section (“Rima
palpebralis”) of the anthology Ora serrate
retinae edited by Feltrinelli in 1980.
For each poem we have been able to access and scan the author’s original version,
which in its natural state in fieri poses the most important and
significant problems of representation. There are also further typewritten versions,
gathered and recatalogued by the author in various notebooks,[6] in which we find again
the strong presence of textual variation, the definitive printed edition and in some
cases a printed version in French. The author continued to edit his own texts until
the appearance of the printed version, but our work is concentrated on the first two
stages of the process of writing the three poems mentioned above: the two autographs
of the first two poems (“Molto sottrae il sonno alla vita”
and “Essere matita è segreta ambizione”) and two
typescripts with corrections in the author’s hand in the case of the third (“Ecco la lunga palpebra della donna”).[7]
2.1 Space and Time. Encoding of the Autograph of “Molto sottrae il sonno alla vita”
In our encoding we have tried to represent the movement of writing, whose
intention was to produce, by each new editorial action and variation, a new text
and a new context. As Allen Renear noted [Renear 2005], it is
possible to apply the categories of pragmatic analysis, and in particular the
notion of illucotory acts, to better analyse and define the scope and specific
uses of markup. As will be seen, we are forced to use markup to favour the
illocutory force of the author’s own text (its dialogic-contextual dimension)
rather than limit ourselves to recording phenomena in a sequential and, as it
were, “external” fashion. In philological terms this means that after a
process, here outlined, consisting of sketches, proofs and discards, we have
decided to favour the diachronic aspect, establishing different phases of writing
and rewriting, and emphasising the significance of the author’s interaction with
the text. As a result, since the choice of encoding is never neutral, either the
graphical aspect of the page or the synchronic actions of writing will be
sacrificed. Also because, as we noted above, as a result of the limits imposed by
the instruments of encoding, often the simultaneous representation of both aspects
becomes excessively difficult if not absolutely impossible.
The TEI Guidelines, version P5,[8]
produced by [Burnard & Bauman 2007], is available in the form of several
customised modules such as Drama and MS. These contain a selection of various
parts of the overall Guidelines and help reduce the complexity and size of the
tagset. The TEI also provides specific elements for the representation of poetic
texts. The basic plan is the following:
<lg> <l>verse</l> <l>verse</l> <l>verse</l> </lg>
The <lg> tag groups the strophe as a unit, while the
<l> element specifies the verse.[9] In our analysis we
chose not to use this model (which is more applicable to the representation of
non-contemporary poetry), primarily because the author’s originals in this case
don’t always contain an explicit division into verses, which was often added by
the author at a later time or not at all; and secondly because this subdivision is
itself subject to alteration and hence must be considered as part of the
phenomenon of textual variation.
We see here the first example of the complexity of the textual phenomena from the
encoding of a fragment of the autograph of “Molto
Sottrae”
Figure 01, the poem that opens the collection both
in the 1980 edition and in that of 1996 [Magrelli 1996, 7]:
2.1.1 First Encoding
The first attempt at encoding had the objective of describing the physical
structure of the page, and considered the autograph at one instant in its
history rather than as the result of a succession of events. It was immediately
noticed (fortunately for us) that the original layers of correction could be
identified by the use of two colors: a red pen for the first draft (“Il sonno è l'indiscreto ospite // irresistibile”) and a
blue pen for corrections and additions (“<E> si
allarga <nel corpo> come un secondo corpo intollerabile...”).
As we will see later, thanks to the use of color we can discern with certainty
at least four successive stages of corrections by the author, assuming they
were carried out at different times.
Since we regarded the rigid division into line-groups (<lg>)
and verses (<l>) as inadequate, we initially marked the end
of each “typographic" line with the empty element <lb/>
(line break) and, since it was impossible to consider this as a suitable mark
for a strophic unit, we enclosed a group of verses or the text of the autograph
in general within a generic element <ab> (anonymous block).
In addition, we also marked the end of the poetic verse with another empty
element <milestone/>, qualified by an attribute
unit="verse". Here is the result of the first attempt:
<handNote xml:id="blue" scribe="Magrelli" medium="blue biro"/> <add hand="#blue" place="left">E</add> Il sonno <subst> <del hand="#blue" type="overstrike">è l'indiscreto ospite<lb/>irresistibile</del> <add hand="#blue">si allarga <add hand="#blue">nel corpo/<milestone unit="verse"/> come un secondo<lb/> corpo intollerabile./<milestone unit="verse"/></add> </subst>
We resorted to the empty elements <lb/> and
<milestone/>, representing respectively the end of the
typographic line and the end of the verse, to avoid problems of
overlap.[10]
In the autograph, in fact, the portion of text cancelled by the stroke of a
blue pen (“è l’indiscreto ospite // irresistibile”)
crosses the end of the typographic line and, if we had used a tag like
<l>verse</l> or even the more generic
<seg>verse</seg> to represent the verse unit, we
would have generated a case of overlap: cancellation followed by replacement in
this case involves a unit longer than a verse.
In any case, although the differentiation between the end of the verse and the
end of the typographic line by means of the empty elements <milestone
unit="verse"/> and <lb/> resolves the problem
of overlap, it also generates a redundancy. These elements in fact fulfil the
same function: both mark the end of a portion of text without qualifying it as
belonging to either. This poses a problem whenever the two elements refer at
the same moment to a common piece of text.
Even though it is possible to represent the author’s own substitutions,
deletions and insertions via the tags <add> (addition) and
<del> (deletion), this choice of markup cannot represent
the chronological sequence of corrections. For example, it doesn’t take into
account the fact that the initial verse extends onto two lines (although it is
one unit), or the subdivision of the initial verse into two, after
“nel corpo/”
was added, or the subsequent introduction of a metrical structure
(the subdivision into verses indicated by Magrelli’s use of the forward slash
/). In the proposed encoding the state of the
metrical scheme was regarded as already decided: the insertion of the metrical
structure is anticipated and reshaped by the editor, when in reality it happens
at a later point in the process. Also, by this selection we lose important
information concerning the relations between the author’s interventions and
their order. In conclusion, it is not possible to represent both phenomena: the
metrical (spatial) structure and that of the (temporal) variation, without
violating the syntax of XML. And in the case of the other canto it would
perhaps not be appropriate to speak of the typographical design of the page for
an object like a manuscript, which is not strictly speaking a publication.
The autograph is in fact considered as an open semiotic system, a “field of action”
[Ferrer 2002, 52] interdependent on its various possible concrete realizations (among
which are printed publications, whether intermediate or definitive).
2.1.2 Second Encoding
In this second attempt we will utilise the elements defined for the
transcription of the critical apparatus of a manuscript, merging the elements
defined in chapters 11 and 12 of the TEI Guidelines.[11] An apparatus is usually understood as
an instrument that records the sequence of variants between multiple texts,
whereas here it is used to represent the variants within a single manuscript.
In our case then we have represented textual variation with the
<app> (apparatus) tag which, instead of recording, as in
its standard use, variants from several manuscripts, here contains the
different stages of composition of a single text (our fragment). Each phrase is
represented by the tag <rdg> (reading), qualified with a
varseq attribute (variant sequence), which in its turn supplies
a number to indicate the sequence. After having identified the various levels
of stratification in the text, which occur uniformly throughout the autograph,
we assigned a successive number to each reading via the attribute
varseq. The number indicates the stage of intervention,
according to our interpretation, to which the segment of text contained there
belongs. As will be seen, in keeping with our intentions, we will represent
both the stages of the writing process and the interventions by the author on
the metrical structure of the poetry:
<app> <rdg varSeq="1">Il sonno è l'indiscreto ospite<lb/> irresistibile.</rdg> <rdg varSeq="3"><add hand="#blue" place="left">E</add> Il sonno <del hand="#blue" type="overstrike">è l'indiscreto ospite<lb/> irresistibile.</del> <add hand="#blue" place="top">si allarga come un secondo<lb/> corpo intollerabile</add></rdg> <rdg varSeq="4"><seg type="l">E il sonno si allarga <add hand="#blue" place="supralinear">nel corpo</add></seg> <seg type="l">come un secondo<lb/> corpo intollerabile</seg></rdg> </app><lb/>
We have chosen to mark the verse by the <seg> element, which
is used generically to mark a segment of uncategorised text, giving it an
attribute "l", which identifies that segment as a verse unit that
we have reconstructed. Examination of the whole autograph reveals four stages:
the red biro represents the first form given to the composition by its author,
and what may be the second stage consists of the author’s interventions —
deletions, rewritings and corrections — with the same implement. The use of the
blue pen indicates a later stage, the third, followed by corrections on top
with the same instrument (fourth stage). In the chosen fragment Figure 01, however, only three stages are visible:
the first, the third and the fourth.
The initial verse is thus the following:
Subsequently the author inserted with the blue biro an E and modified the verse, deleting a portion of it (è l’indiscreto ospite // irresistibile) and added some new text (si allarga come un secondo corpo intollerabile). Hence we have1. Il sonno è l’indiscreto ospite irresistibile (red biro).
The result of the final revision is the integration of “nel corpo/” and the introduction of a metrical structure (the character / indicates the end of a verse):3. E il sonno si allarga come un secondo // corpo intollerabile
In the encoding, we have chosen to represent not only the actions of the author and hence the physical data (cancellation, rewriting, insertion of elements which subdivide the verse unit) but also the consequences of these actions (the first portion of text is substituted by another, forming a new verse; this is turn undergoes variation to form two new verses). Then, by eliminating the empty milestone element and inserting the <seg type="l"> tag, we make one reconstruction of the verse explicit, while marking the end of the typographic line with <lb/>.4. E il sonno si allarga nel corpo / come un secondo // corpo intollerabile /
In this way, we resolve some of the problems that emerged from the first
encoding:
- We represent textual variation with the <app> tag and indicate the sequence of the author’s corrections with the varseq attribute;
- We contain the textual variation within the element <seg type="l">, representing the reconstruction of the verse unit;
- We avoid the redundancy of empty elements by specifying which unit undergoes textual variation.
It is obvious that these choices not only constitute a specific (and
questionable) interpretation of the process of writing, but they do not account
for the external aspect of the autograph. And from the point of view of a
palaeographer or an archivist, this would be a serious loss of information.
Insofar as our proposed encoding can be revised, perfected and extended, we
find ourselves facing the central theoretical crux of the representation of
digital documents: encoding has the virtue of requiring us to explain and
justify our choices, but at the same time this assumption of responsibility
(useful and correct in the eyes of the scientific community) declares, as it
were, its epistemic limit: not all knowledge can be represented with the
present digital tools.
2.2 Alternative or Variant? Encoding of Ecco la lunga palpebra della donna
The second composition we examine allows us to observe which phenomena shed light
on the encoding of deletions, substitutions, and insertions within the same
autograph, in particular the problematic distinction between hierarchies of
variants.
As in the preceding case, it is possible to reconstruct the chronology of
Magrelli's interventions by examining the graphical elements, and see how a change
in pen color indicates a subsequent addition, or by examining the spatial
elements, such as the place where the author puts the added text. But such
interpretations are insufficient to interpret and encode the process of
composition. In the autograph of Ecco la lunga palpebra della
donna, we are faced with words that are cancelled and substituted not
by another word but by two different ones, by additions above the line
(supralinear) or below the line (sublinear). In the fragment of the poem that we
chose to examine Figure 02 the text is spread over
five lines (which we shall only call verses by the laws of post hoc), and is rich
in intratextual and pragmatic phenomena of both the textual and graphical kinds
(e.g. arrows, marks of emphasis, cross references etc.) In particular the
adjectives were subject to close attention by the author and could be reduced to
two lists of variants, which Magrelli drew up within the autograph (of which one
is visible in Figure 02: the four adjectives written
in the bottom right in capitals).
As can be seen, the adjectives stupito, perplesso
and inquieto on the last line (bottom left of
Figure 02) could have been added at the same
moment, or stupito and inquieto could have been inserted subsequently and could be
considered as the two variants parallel in time to perplesso. For this reason we have considered them as a list of
variants within the line, whose chronological succession we will not attempt to
reconstruct. Immediately following this are two other variants, canta and sogna, which
serve as replacements for suona. In this case one
can suppose a chronological sequence (suona
replaced by canta and sogna), which explicitly retains the value of the coexisting variant
alternatives. Here is the encoding of the entire fragment:
1 <handNote xml:id="M" scribe="Magrelli"/> <!-- ... --> <rdg varSeq="2"><subst><del hand="#M" type="overstrike">traccia</del><add hand="#M" 5 place="right">cenno</add></subst></rdg> <rdg varSeq="3"><subst><del hand="#M" type="overstrike">cenno</del><add hand="#M" place="supralinear">porta</add></subst></rdg> </app> 10 </seg><lb/> <seg type="l">d'un <app> <rdg varSeq="1">lungo</rdg> <rdg varSeq="2"><subst><del hand="#M" 15 type="overstrike">lungo</del><add hand="#M" place="supralinear"><emph rend="circle" n="adj_2">antico</emph></add></subst></rdg> </app> acquedotto di sguardi, </seg><lb/> 20 <seg type="l"> <app> <rdg varSeq="1">una orbita assorta e magica</rdg> <rdg varSeq="2">una<subst><del hand="#M" type="overstrike">orbita</del><add hand="#M" 25 place="supralinear">curva</add></subst> <del hand="#M" type="overstrike">assorta</del> e <del hand="#M" type="overstrike">magica</del> e <add hand="#M" place="supralinear">muta</add></rdg> <rdg varSeq="3"><del hand="#M" 30 type="overstrike">una</del><add hand="#M" place="supralinear">la sua</add>curva <emph rend="circle" n="adj_3">sacra</emph> e <del hand="#M" type="overstrike">muta</del> <add hand="#M" place="supralinear"><emph rend="circle" 35 n="adj_4">solitaria</emph></add>: </rdg> </app> </seg><lb/> <seg type="l">ai suoi piedi 40 <app> <rdg varSeq="1">un pastore</rdg> <rdg varSeq="2"><add hand="#M" place="supralinear">nasce il canto <note type="arrow" resp="#M" place="foot"> 45 <list type="simple" n="adj_list1"> <item><del hand="#M" type="overstrike">DOLENTE</del></item> <item>PERPLESSO</item> <item>STUPITO</item> 50 <item><del hand="#M" type="overstrike">ATTONITO</del></item> </list> </note> d'un</add> pastore</rdg> 55 <rdg varSeq="3">nasce il canto <note type="arrow" resp="#M" place="foot"> <list type="simple" n="adj_list2"> <item><del hand="#M" type="overstrike">DOLENTE</del></item> 60 <item>PERPLESSO</item> <item>STUPITO</item> <item><del hand="#M" type="overstrike">ATTONITO</del></item> </list> 65 </note> <del hand="#M" type="overstrike">d'un</del> <add hand="#M" place="supralinear">perplesso d'un</add> pastore</rdg> </app> 70 </seg><lb/> <seg type="l"> <list type="varianti" resp="#M"> <item><emph rend="underlined" n="adj_5">perplesso</emph></item> 75 <item><emph rend="underlined" n="adj_6">stupito</emph></item> <item><emph rend="underlined" n="adj_7">inquieto</emph></item> </list> 80 <delSpan hand="#M" type="overstrike" spanTo="#delend01"/> <app> <rdg varSeq="1">suona e muore</rdg> <rdg varSeq="2"><del hand="#M" type="overstrike" n="d2">suona e</del> 85 <add hand="#M"> <list type="varianti" resp="#M"> <item>canta</item> <item>sogna</item> </add></list><anchor xml:id="delend01"/> 90 <del hand="#M" type="overstrike">muore</del><add hand="#M" place="right">piange.</add> </rdg> </app> </seg><lb/>
Here also we have used the TEI Guidelines for transcription of an apparatus
criticus, enclosing the textual variation in the <app> tag, and
assigning to each reading (<rdg>) of the verse a sequence
number.[12] In the final verse (lines 71-94) we find the
alternation of two variants, canta e sogna (lines
87-88), which replace the cancelled word suona;
in the final passage we use the empty element <delSpan/>
[13], which
marks a portion of cancelled text, to indicate the deletion via an oblique line of
the three variants altogether (suona, canta and
sogna). This triple cancellation is anchored
via the <anchor/> element to the point at which the
cancellation finishes (line 89).
To represent the references between the list and the elements in the text we
assigned to each adjective an identifier using the n-attribute (preceded by the
"adj" attribute: adj_1, adj_2, etc.) The adjectives
recur several times in the text and the author attached a particular importance to
them, circling or underlining them. To render this emphasis we have used the
<emph> tag, giving it a rend attribute which
explains what type it is (circled or underlined). The encoding of the fourth verse
(lines 39-70) presents one solution to a complex set of interrelationships among
elements in various areas of the autograph. Subsequently, probably during the
insertion of nasce il canto, the author inserted
an arrow, which refers to a list of four adjectives written in capitals at the
foot of the page (Figure 02, bottom left). This type
of indication can be interpreted as an “action” of the author directed
towards producing certain effects — but not results, because the author is, in a
certain sense, also engaged in a dialog with himself. To record this dialectic we
have chosen to represent the arrow with a note, via the metatextual
<note> element (line 44), giving it the attribute
type="arrow", and inserting it in the text containing a list of
the adjectives as alternatives (each distinguished from the others by
<item>). Since we maintain that the list/note of four
adjectives was inserted during the second draft, we assign it to the second
version (<rdg varSeq="2">). In the facsimile the arrow is
joined to the o of [nasce il] canto (added above
the fourth line of the autograph). In summary, our reading of the fourth verse
treats the variants within the text as components (<item>s) of
a list (<list>), which we connect back to a collection of
alternatives placed by the author at the foot of the page. Obviously, this
solution, which thus inverts the spatial distribution of the elements in relation
to how they are presented in the autograph (the list occurs at the end of the
fifth verse and not within the fourth as in the encoding), is one possible
workaround for representing such complex phenomena. This is a further example of
how encoding of the writing process can imply, through the
remodelling/reconstruction brought about by markup languages, the overturning of
the spatial dimension. In other words, what appears in the material reality of the
document as a particular region, determined visually, in the pragmatic dimension
of the process may be located on several temporal levels. Since to encode means to
select one point of view, in our case we are forced to represent, through the
linear instruments of markup, something which is not linear by its very nature.
This is a dimension which the author indicates “performatively” through
signals that are not exclusively textual, as if to show that the dimension of the
process cannot be cognitively reduced to a hierachical sequence.
2.3 Backwards in Time: Encoding of Essere matita è segreta ambizione
It is appropriate that this last example of encoding explores the relationship
between writing and time. In this case we shall analyse a composition in which the
material succession of witnesses does not coincide with the temporal succession of
the various writing phases. We possess numerous versions of Essere matita è segreta ambizione, which reveal, in addition to a
complex process of composition, a classification peculiar to Valerio Magrelli.
Each witness is contained in a notebook representing a specific phase of writing.
Altogether there are eight witnesses: the autograph, the second typewritten
version, contained in the notebook “Foglietti I,” the
photocopy of the second version (also in “Foglietti
I”), the third in “Foglietti II,” the fourth in
“Libro — parte I,” the fifth printed, the sixth,
which will be the definitive printed version, and a printed version in French.
What follows are the images of two versions of the first part of the poem Essere matita è segreta ambizione:
- Second version (which we call A):
- Sixth version (which we call B):
The sixth version (B) is a photocopy of the first version (A). It thus follows it
in time, but, as can be seen, it also precedes the insertion of later corrections
in the original. The cancellation in pencil of la sua rete
di vene sottili in fact will not appear in subsequent versions, not
even the final one [Magrelli 1996, 13]. The temporal inversion
then generates another case of overlap: the correction in A before B is a typical
case of “genetic order”
[Ferrer 1995, 143], which contrasts with the material order. In reality we are faced with
three dimensions of the text:
- The yellow page preceding the corrections (A0)
- The photocopy without corrections (B)
- The yellow page with corrections (A).
2.3.1 Encoding of A
<div type="second corrected version" n="M004b1_M004b2">
<ab n="A">
<seg type="l">Essere matita è segreta
ambizione.<lb/></seg>
<seg type="l">Bruciare sulla pagina
lentamente<lb/></seg>
<seg type="l">e nella pagina restare<lb/></seg>
<seg type="l">in altra nuova forma
suscitato.<lb/></seg>
<seg type="l">Diventare così da carne segno, e da
strumento<lb/></seg>
<seg type="l">esile ossatura del pensiero,<lb/></seg>
<seg type="l"><note type="annotation" resp="editor" xml:id="v2"
next="v6">the correction to this part of the text is subsequent to the
drafting of the sixth version of the poem</note><emph rend="square
brackets"><del hand="M" type="overstrike">la sua rete di
vene sottili</del></emph><lb/></seg>
</ab>
</div>
2.3.2 Encoding of B
<div type="sixth version" n="M006_M007">
<ab n="A" id="v6" prev="v2">
<seg type="l">Essere matita è segreta
ambizione.<lb/></seg>
<seg type="l">Bruciare sulla pagina
lentamente<lb/></seg>
<seg type="l">e nella pagina restare<lb/></seg>
<seg type="l">in altra nuova forma
suscitato.<lb/></seg>
<seg type="l">Diventare così da carne segno, e da
strumento<lb/></seg>
<seg type="l">esile ossatura del pensiero<lb/></seg>
<seg type="l">la sua rete di vene sottili.<lb/></seg>
</ab>
</div>
Conclusions: The Epistemology of Variation
In this paper we have described and analyzed some methods for representing textual
phenomena of the writing process by means of the TEI-XML Guidelines. The term
epistemology of variation,[14] invoked here for the
first time, may help to express what is at stake in this representation: not simply
an account of evidence whose significance begins and ends with the data, but an
account of a system of knowledge in which the relation between states is as important
as any state taken alone. As already mentioned, markup languages appear to be — at
the moment — the most flexible scientific and economical solution for the
representation of digital text. However, as already explained, it would be naive and
probably counterproductive to claim that we are satisfied. Many (but not all) of the
phenomena described here can be represented only with great effort or with an
unacceptable level of imprecision. XML, like its predecessor SGML, was originally
designed as an instrument for archiving and information retrieval, whereas the
mouvance of the text poses challenges for the encoding and
representation that can only be resolved by the development of a different model of
encoding, and by the design of an adequate user interface on the application level.
Nevertheless, it should be pointed out that without an adequate theoretical
reflection on text in the digital era no instrument can offer satisfying solutions.
The variant is “complex stratified knowledge”
[Benozzo 2004, 52] which embodies an epistemological and cultural status. In fact, variation,
from evolutionary biology [Edelman 2006] to cognitive anthropology [Sperber 1996], is at the heart of the phenomena and processes of
diffusion of culture. In other words, a certain degree of instability is immanent to
the transmission of knowledge. Variation therefore calls into question the notion of
“repeatability,” an important concept in disciplines concerned with the
transmission of information — including philology. The “failure to repeat”
[Ferrer 2002, 52] is thus an annoying spanner in the conceptual works of any procedure based on
recursive structures. This happens because the variant, understood as a symptom of
the processual (rather than the editorial) dimension is an “equally valid
alternative,” which does not expect the attainment of “truth.” The new
epistemological law revealed to us by the dynamics of the writing process is part of
the actual paradigm-shift which concerns the sciences of language, where it emerges
as a dialectic between the concept of “system” and that of “process” (or in
our case between text and writing):
Of particular interest appears to be the recent deepening of the notion of “process,” which emerges in a separate but convergent manner from the study of phonetics and phonology, and from morphology and syntax ... These results converge towards a vision that is much more complex and empirically founded on the problem of the linearity of linguistic phenomena, showing that at each level of analysis global planes come into play behind the apparent seriality of linguistic production. ... One significant consequence of the creation of these new methods is that they succeed in reducing interest in the notion of process to the second level to the benefit of the notion of process. [Sornicola 2005, 37]
Even though it is always risky to propose analogies, this epistemological turn can be
compared to that “second phase” in the history of physics, which is the subject
of the work of the chemist and epistemologist Ilya Prigogine. For Prigogine
post-Newtonian physics, having discovered disequilibrium, ceased to describe
phenomena in terms of stability and uniformity, as Boltzmann had done, construing a
model — whose results echo those of the forest of “bifid
trees” discovered by Bédier — “from the irreversible
evolution of the population of particles towards a state of equilibrium,”
which has the effect of describing, exactly as Bédier noted on the subject of the
tradition of the Lai de l’ombre (Bédier 1929-1985), “an evolution towards uniformity”
[Prigogine & Stengers 1988, 25–26]. At the centre of Prigogine’s argument is the accusation directed against
Newtonian physics that it ignores time: “...opposed to dynamic
eternity is the second principle of thermodynamics... Physics was finally able to
describe, like the other sciences, a world open to history.” The second
phase of physics “is that of the instability of the elementary
particles and their complexity”; subsequently he adds “the discovery of structures not in equilibrium, which
overturns the dogma that assimilates the growth of entropy to molecular
disorder”
[Prigogine & Stengers 1988, 44]. This “non-equilibrium” greatly resembles the notion of process developed
and analysed in various areas of the humanities: “If one can say,
a posteriori
, that this second period has seen the discovery of a world of processes
of creation, far removed from the correct world of eternal laws, which
characterised the ideal of classical physics”
[Prigogine & Stengers 1988, 44]. The analogy could continue, for example, by noting that the philological
concept of “original text” presupposes a dismissal of time, establishing a
principle of reversability: apart from certain effects (the tradition) it is always
possible to jump back to the cause (the original). But in both cases — in the physics
of Boltzman and the philology of Lachmann — to go back to the cause is a metaphysical
undertaking: texts and elementary particles are both ascribed to a world which cannot
be interpreted or represented in genealogical terms or by following rigid principles
of causality.
Applied to our case, that is, the representation and use of digital text, this vision
of time, open to history, forces us to
- acknowledge that the actual computational models, and in particular formal languages like XML, are not always adequate for the representation of unstable cultural information structures such as textual variants;
- rethink the models of digital documents, incorporating the vision of text as a process, a plastic phenomenon, part of a temporal continuum in which all of its “phases and structures” (material or abstract[15]) have “intrinsic meaning.” [16]
Addendum
The Encoding Model for Genetic Editions being proposed as a new chapter of the TEI
Guidelines [Burnard et al. 2010] was published after this paper was accepted.
Having read this document carefully, we still think that it does not address the
essential difficulties we have raised in our study.
Acknowledgments
Although this work is the result of shared research and discussion, the physical
draft paragraphs 1, 2 and 3 are the work of D. Fiormonte and the XML encoding of all
the autographs is the work of V. Martiradonna, as are the relevant analytical
comments in sections 2.1, 2.2 and 2.3. Desmond Schimdt translated the text into
English, suggested important corrections and additions in all sections, and revised
the encoding according to the P5 recent developments. The authors would like to thank
Fabio Ciotti for his help in the more complex aspects of the variant encoding and
Valerio Magrelli for his generosity in making his original materials available. This
research has been supported by the Italian National Research Programme (PRIN) “Content Organization, Propagation, Evaluation and Reuse through
Active Repositories” (http://nexos.cisi.unito.it/joomla/cooperare/).
Notes
[1] Of the number of studies on
the dynamics of the textual process (mostly modern and contemporary) the first
proposals for computational solutions appeared at the beginning of the 90s; see in
particular [Brockbank 1991], [Lebrave 1991], [Mordenti 1992] and [Ferrer 1995]. However, it is Jerome
McGann [McGann 2001], perhaps more than any other scholar in the
last few years, who has advanced the idea of text dynamics by developing a
theoretical direction begun by Donald F. McKenzie [McKenzie 1986],
and by applying it to important digital projects. Useful overviews of the
connections between genetic criticism, Anglo-American textual bibliography and
other European philological schools of thought are provided by [Morrás 1999], [Lernout 1996] and more recently by
contributions to the first volumes of Variants, the review of the
European Society for Textual
Scholarship. For a reconstruction of the historic and theoretical links
between Italian variant criticism and French genetic criticism see [Giaveri 1993], and the recent contributions in the international
journal Ecdotica.
[2] On this
basis, referring to Hans Zeller [Zeller 1975], Peter Shillingsburg
and Jerome McGann (although omitting to mention Italian variant criticism and
French genetic criticism), Susan Schreibman has coined the term
versioning to describe the new editorial theory, which ought to be
reserved for the development of digital variorum editions [Schreibman 2002, 288]. For a recent attempt to import French
textual scholarship into the Anglo-American context see [Bushell 2007].
[3] Shillingsburg developed the
concept of “script acts” mentioned above.
[4] French genetic criticism refers to a single
or multiple authorial writing artifact as avant-texte (pre-text),
while the entire corpus of manuscripts, drafts, notes, etc., is termed
dossier genetique.
[5] Even non-XML based markup systems like LMNL and TexMECS still
model the text as a hierarchical structure (although not as a tree). In any case
they are described as “purely experimental”
[Johnsen and Huitfeldt 2007] and “under development”
[Tennison et al. 2009] by their own authors, and so are not yet practical alternatives. COCOA,
though often cited as allowing non-hierarchical structures, in fact imposes no
real structure on the text other than to define a reference system [Hockey and Martin 1988].
[6] For a
description of these materials see on the web site the introduction by Tommaso
Lisa (now in [Lisa 2004, 9–23]).
[7] A TEI-XML encoding
of all the writing drafts (autographs, typewritten and printed versions) of a
corpus of approximately ten compositions by Valerio Magrelli is available in [Martiradonna 2004].
[8] For an analysis
of the changes between versions P4 and P5 of the TEI Guidelines see Lou
Burnard, “La TEI Lite dalla P4 alla P5: continuità e
cambiamento,” in [Burnard & Sperberg-McQueen 2005, 201–212].
[9] As expected by all
markup languages derived from SGML (such as HTML), elements are required to
start with an opening tag and end with a closing tag (the forward slash
/ indicates the closing of a tag). Since there is no room here
for a precise description of TEI-XML we are constrained to refer to the manual
of Burnard and Sperberg-McQueen [Burnard & Sperberg-McQueen 2005] or to the TEI website.
[10] For a discussion and a proposal for other hacks to avoid
overlapping hierarchies, see for example [Bauman 2005a].
[11] Chap. 11 Representation of primary sources; Chap. 12 Critical Apparatus.
[12] It can be seen here how the act of encoding, by forcing us to
represent through discrete elements the writing process continuum, could
produce redundant structures. In fact, the registration of the writing stages
includes also the already represented elements: see for example the
“clone” of <list> (bottom list of adjectives), which
we can find both in the second (varSeq="2", r. 42) and third
passage (varSeq="3", r. 55) of the encoding of the fourth verse
line (Table 1, lines 39-70). This redundancy reflects “spatially” the idea
that each textual movement (each modification) should be considered as an
independent system which, in its turn, needs a separate
encoding/representation.
[13] Also where the empty element is necessary to avoid overlap.
[14] Although never explicitly cited, we
recognize both by use of this term, and also through our first reflections on the
concept, our debt to [Cerquiglini 1989].
[15] The phases of the
process of writing are abstract and can be reproduced via digital
“simulations”; but the structures of a document (the product) can be
either material or abstract: the trace left on the page is a material fact,
but the insertion of a title, the start of a new paragraph, the insertion of
a note etc. exist as categories and as models which from time to time take
concrete form in situations and expressions. As showed in researches that
span from authorial medieval manuscripts [Barolini & Storey 2007] up to
contemporary editions [Giuliani 2006], the text is the result
of these material and abstract interacting forces, which are always mutually
influencing one another.
[16] We are adapting to the domain of textual fluidity a formulation suggested
by the second generation of cognitive linguists and expressed primarily in
opposition to dualistic and formal approaches to language. According to
cognitive linguist Langacker [Langacker 1987-1991] language cannot
be considered a module separated from other mental activities and operations
(cf. [Formigari 2001, 271]). In applying this conceptual
model to the text, we could say that the abstract, material and procedural
aspects of writing are all responsible for building the “meaning” of
the text.
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Published by: The Alliance of Digital Humanities Organizations and The Association for Computers and the Humanities
Affiliated with: Digital Scholarship in the Humanities
DHQ has been made possible in part by the National Endowment for the Humanities.
Copyright © 2005 -
Unless otherwise noted, the DHQ web site and all DHQ published content are published under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. Individual articles may carry a more permissive license, as described in the footer for the individual article, and in the article’s metadata.
