Editing Now
Critical and scholarly editions fulfil a crucial function in the preservation and transmission of national literary heritages. Throughout its very long tradition, scholarly editing has had as its primary concern the establishment of accurate texts. Editions, however, not only provide the foundation for critical analysis, they are also “knowledge sites” that aim to record everything there is to know about the text’s history and the culture that produced it. Editions however are not only embedded in the rich tapestry of humanistic inquiry, but are part of a set of wider socio-economic structures that make this inquiry possible. Editions are heavily reliant on investment of research time and technology. The recent advent of digital technology in particular has given a new realism to the knowledge that large-scale editorial projects force large economic questions. It is now accepted that the digital edition cannot be separated from audience, access, functionality and sustainability. The same is increasingly becoming true for the traditional, printed edition. The ambition of the Editing Now network is to evaluate current and future models in the production and dissemination of critical and scholarly editions, and to start a debate with the stakeholders -- the publishers, the funders, HE policy makers, and the editors and researchers -- with a view of broadening their impact and effectiveness.
The partners in the network are:
- The Institute of English Studies (University of London)
- Durham University
- The Centre for Manuscript Genetics (Antwerp)
- University of New South Wales, Canberra
- The Electronic Textual Cultures Laboratory, University of Victoria
- Institute for Advanced Technology in the Humanities (University of Virginia)
- The School of Cultural Texts and Records (Jadavpur University)
