Genetic Criticism in Motion. New Perspectives on Manuscript Studies

Edited by Sakari Katajamäki and Veijo Pulkkinen. Associate editor Tommi Dunderlin. SKS 2023.

Available as open access at: https://doi.org/10.21435/sflit.14

The book provides a cross-section of current international trends in genetic criticism, half a century after the birth of the discipline in Paris. The last two decades have witnessed an expansion of the field of study with new kinds of research objects and new forms of archival material, along with various kinds of interdisciplinary intersections and new theoretical perspectives.

The essays in this volume represent various European literary and scholarly traditions discussing creative processes from Polish poetry to French children’s literature, as well as topical issues such as born-digital literature and the application of forensic methodology to manuscript studies. The book is intended for scholars and students of literary criticism and textual scholarship, together with anyone interested in the working practices of writers, illustrators, and editors.

The book is divided into an introduction and four sections which explore different aspects of the discipline and various literary traditions in Europe:

Sakari Katajamäki and Veijo Pulkkinen: Introduction: The Widening Circles of Genetic Criticism

I Writing Technologies

Wim Van Mierlo: Genetic Criticism and Modern Palaeography: The Cultural Forms of Modern Literary Manuscripts

Veijo Pulkkinen: A Curious Thing: Typescripts and Genetic Criticism

II Digitality and Genetic Criticism

Dirk Van Hulle: The Logic of Versions in Born-Digital Literature

Paolo D’Iorio: The Genetic Edition of Nietzsche’s Work

III Draft Reading

Mateusz Antoniuk: Dying in Nine Ways: Genetic Criticism and the Proliferation of Variants

Julia Holter: The Translation Draft as Debt Negotiation Space: Underlying Forces of the Collaborative Translation of Vadim Kozovoï’s Hors de la colline (1984)

IV Multimodality

Claire Doquet and Solène Audebert-Poulet: Text and Illustrations as Producers of Meaning: A Genetic Study of a Children’s Illustrated Book

Hanna Karhu: Use of Folklore in a Writing Process of Poetry: Rewritings of Folk Songs and References to Oral Poetry in Otto Manninen’s Early Manuscripts

Printed review copies can be requested from the publisher.