Genetic editing (French '' critique génétique''; German ''genetische Kritik''; Spanish '' crítica genética'') is an approach to scholarly editing in which an exemplar is seen as derived from a dossier of other

manuscript A manuscript (abbreviated MS for singular and MSS for plural) was, traditionally, any document written by hand or typewritten, as opposed to mechanically printed or reproduced in some indirect or automated way. More recently, the term has ...

s and events. The derivation can be through physical cut and paste; writing or drawing in a variety of media; quotation,

annotation An annotation is extra information associated with a particular point in a document or other piece of information. It can be a note that includes a comment or explanation. Annotations are sometimes presented Marginalia, in the margin of book page ...

or correction; acts of physical defacement; etc. Genetic editing aims to reconstruct the sequence of actions on the manuscript and exactly which parts of the manuscript were acted upon where multiple manuscripts have been combined (through for example cut and paste or quotation).

Overview

Whereas traditional scholarly editing can be seen as constructing a new document drawing together and comparing many source documents to cast light on a work, genetic editing closely examines a single

extant Extant or Least-concern species, least concern is the opposite of the word extinct. It may refer to: * Extant hereditary titles * Extant literature, surviving literature, such as ''Beowulf'', the oldest extant manuscript written in English * Exta ...

manuscript and traces back each aspect to cast light on the work. Genetic editing is named by analogy with genetics: manuscripts (individuals) are derived from other manuscripts (or previous states of the same manuscript) with the derivation tree being a partial ordered tree.

Genetic editing models

Genetic editing is strong in European, particularly French and German,

textual scholarship Textual scholarship (or textual studies) is an umbrella term for disciplines that deal with describing, transcribing, editing or annotating text (literary theory), texts and physical documents. Overview Textual research is mainly historically orie ...

. The German genetic editing, which has been associated with synoptic telescoping, has a different method of presentation from the Anglo-American model. The primary model and test case of German editions has been

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Johann Wolfgang (von) Goethe (28 August 1749 – 22 March 1832) was a German polymath who is widely regarded as the most influential writer in the German language. His work has had a wide-ranging influence on Western literature, literary, Polit ...

. In England and the United States it is

William Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 23 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...

, who did not leave manuscripts of his works. Completed works of genetic editing are known as genetic editions. These documents are similar to documentary editions but it also include information detailing the different phases of writing and rewriting of the manuscript. The

Text Encoding Initiative The Text Encoding Initiative (TEI) is a text-centric community of practice in the academic field of digital humanities, operating continuously since the 1980s. The community currently runs a mailing list, meetings and conference series, and ma ...

XML Extensible Markup Language (XML) is a markup language and file format for storing, transmitting, and reconstructing data. It defines a set of rules for encoding electronic document, documents in a format that is both human-readable and Machine-r ...

format has support for encoding of genetic editions.

Examples

* HyperNietzsche https://web.archive.org/web/20080706123702/http://www.hypernietzsche.org/ * Ulysses: A Critical and Synoptic Edition (1984; Gabler, Steppe, and Melchior) *Transforming Middlemarch: A Genetic Edition of Andrew Davies' 1994 BBC Adaptation of George Eliot's Novel https://middlemarch.dmu.ac.uk

References

Digital humanities Editing Textual criticism Textual scholarship {{philology-stub