Radiant Textuality

Author(s): Jerome McGann

Reviewed work(s):
Source: Victorian Studies, Vol. 39, No. 3 (Spring, 1996), pp. 379-390
Published by: Indiana University Press
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REVIEW ESSAY

RADIANT TEXTUALITY
JEROME

MCGANN

recentliterarynewsgroupon the Internetposed the following

format?
question: "Has anyof you writtenresearchin hypertext
These
Would you accept a dissertationwrittenin hypertext?"
of
reflect
an
that
is
common
because
the
staranxiety
today
questions
tlingimpactof technologicalchange on humanitiesand literarystudy.
The anxietygrowsfromcertainunhelpfuland erroneousassumptions
about the nature of these technologies,on one hand, and the traditionalworkof criticalresearchand studyon the other.
Furthermore,the venue bearing the questions told its own
story:thatthese assumptionsoperate irrespectiveof one's enthusiasm
or one's skepticismabout theseimportantculturalchanges.
Newsgroupe-mailis a hot medium;it solicitsquick responses.
So withthe electroniccharactersof the questionsstillradiatingin my
eyes,I shotoffthe followingresponse.
formatalready
There's a good deal of "research"in hypertext
out there,some of it in paper.
edition is "researchin hypertextfor1. ANY scholarly-critical
mat."And here one wantsto remindeveryonethat"research"etc.,and
is hardlyconfinedto thesetpieceessay-indeed, thatformis one
litcrit,
and restrictive
we have evolved.. ..
of the mostconstricting
2. Look at the back issues of Postmodern
Culture,
especiallythe
A

last

couple

(HTTP://JEFFERSON.VILLAGE.VIRGINIA.EDU/PMC/CON-

TENTS.ALL.HTML).

3. Look at the "general publications"of UVA's "Institutefor

Advanced Technology in the Humanities" (HTTP://JEFFERSON.VILLAGE.VIRGINIA.EDU/GENERALPUBS.HTML).

4. Finally,look at variousonline homepagesforcourses.Aren't

courses"researchprojects"(in myexperience,coursesare sceneswhere

SPRING 1996

JEROME MCGANN

380

everyonelearns; "teaching"is a topdownmodel of learningI've never

Or much help.
been able to findveryattractive.
As withvirtually(a tremblingword here) all newsgroupcommunication,thisone comes in a kind of informalshorthand.Let me
expand whatI was tryingto say.
The Returnof the Library
To date, computerizationin humanitieshas been mainlylocated in workcloselyassociated withthe library,and withlibrary-orientedresearchprojects.This has happened forone simpleand obvious
reason: materialdemands have drivenlibrariesto studyand exploit
computerized tools, which allow these research facilitiesto gain a
measure of controlover the massiveamountsof data theyare called
upon to manage.
For humanitiesand especiallyliteraryscholars,the libraryis
the center of the world,the one thingneedful. (As Borges thought,
it mighteven BE the world; at any rate, it is the vehicle we ride to
knowand experience theworld.) Of course,sometimeswe forgetthe
importanceof the library,as our twentieth-century
experience shows
only too plainly.In the tightlittleisland of humanitiesstudies,the
assaultupon memoryand historicalknowledgeinstitutedin the 1930s
created a fifty-year
period when the humanitiesand literarystudies
tested the possibilitiesof abandoning their bibliographical center.
StanleyFish's notorious pronouncement (ca. 1975) that he did not
need a libraryto do what he does, is an index of a distinctive(and
recentlydominant) ethos.2
The imperativesdrivinglibrariesand museumstowardgreater
computerizationare not the same as those thathave broughtthe now
well-known"returnto history"in literaryand humanitiesscholarship.
a convergenceof the twainhas come about,and now the
Nevertheless,
two movements-the computerizationof the archives,and the re-hiseach othertoward
toricizingofscholarship-are continually
stimulating
newventures.
The Mutationof Theoryto Practise
Under thesecircumstances,
humanitiesscholarsand educators
have been drawnback towarda deep and seriousre-engagement
with

VICTORIAN STUDIES

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381

anotherfundamentalsubdisciplineof theirwork:textualand editorial

theoryand method.Although"theory"no longerdefinesbroad ranges
as it did in recentyears,it has preserveda vigorous
of scholarlyactivity,
lifein textualstudies.As a consequence, a ratherunusual situationhas
emergedduringthe past fiveyearsor so.
First,"theory"oftencarriesa highlypracticaldimension.The
brilliant
theoretical
electronicmarkupschemepursuitofa standardized
epitomizedin thedevelopmentofSGML and thesubsequentevolutionof
the TEI guidelinesforelectronictexts-maybe takenas the epitomeof
I am talkingabout.3Here theoretical
thekindof theoretical
work
activity
is undertakenundera clearpracticalhorizon.Certaintoolsfororganizing
As
and analyzingelectronictextsweredesiredand eventually
constructed.
of thiskind,theworkitselfexposes,perhaps
so oftenhappensin activities
thatdemand furtherstudyand
even creates,new ideas and possibilities
of SGML and TEI as general
exploration.(In thiscase, the limitations
The MECS
alternatives.
have
revisionary
generatedimportant
approaches
Projectappears to be
systemof markupdevelopedfortheWittgenstein
is
the
followed
Archive
another
one;
bytheRossetti
hybridapproachbeing
and associatedworksliketheBlake and theEmilyDickinsonprojects).4
Second, textualand editorialworkare once again being seen
forwhattheyare and have alwaysbeen: the fundamentalground for
intellectualwork.This realizationhas
any kind of historically-oriented
been coming about, I think,exactlybecause the archivesare "going
electronic."That event-the creation of networkedarchivesholding
vast bodies of electronicand digitizedmaterials-has been exerting
involvedin the
enormouspressureupon scholarsto become intimately
of
archives.
creation
those
and
design
Scholarshipin theAge of NetworkedArchives
We standat thebeginningof a greatscholarlyrevolution.Even
nowwe operate under the extraordinary
promisethisrevolutionholds
the
of
all
out: to integrate resources
libraries,museums,and archives
and to make those resourcesavailable to all personsno matterwhere
The hardwareand softwaretools that help to
theyreside physically.
realize these expectationsare under development,indeed, are well
advanced.Althoughthesetechnicaldevicesare indispensable,scholars
like ourselveswill exert most influenceon theirdesign by focussing
or
attentionon whatwe do and have traditionally
done, and (implicitly

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JEROME MCGANN

explicitly)askingthat these new tools be designed to help us do our

customaryworkbetter.
In thisrespectI would emphasizethreeresearchareas. Two of
these centerin the scholar's principalresearchtool, the library.The
thirdinvestigates
new methodsof criticismand interpretation.
we
have
to begin transforming
our existingpaper-based
First,
archivesofmaterialintousable electronicforms(textualas wellas graphical). Second,we have to move our currentworkintoelectronicvenues
thatenhanceboth therangeand theeffectiveness
ofwhatwe do. Finally,
we mustbeginexperimenting
withthecriticalopportunities
thatthesenew
media hold out to us. Contraryto the expectationscreatedbytheexplosionof theInternet,traditional
scholarswho navigatethatsea ofinformationhaveyetto findmuchto help themin theirdisciplinary
work.Pockets
of exceptionsexist,and ifyou are a scholarof postmodernism
theNet is
a richlode indeed.The latterexceptionunderscorestheproblem:theNet
has notyetaccumulatedthosebodies ofcontentthatwe need ifwe are to
do our work.As a Victorianist
I stillhave to go to thelibraryto seek out
books and periodicalsI need, and I
copies of the nineteenth-century
continueto depend upon traditionalbibliographicaltools-books and
catalogues-to developmyresearchprojects.
The taskofdigitizing
our archives-notjustthearchivalsystems,
but the corpus of materialshoused in our librariesand museums-is
enormous.Nonetheless,it is a job thatis alreadyunderwayand it will
continue.A core ofdigitizedreferencematerialsis emergingquicklyand
the rapid expansionof thiscore is takingplace everyday.That process
in itsturnexertsa steadypressureto digitizethe regularholdings.It is
crucialthatscholarstakean activerole in shapingtheseeventssincethey
affectthe characterof our mostfundamentalresources.
The exampleof theChadwyck-Healey
"EnglishPoetryDatabase"
is an eloquent one. This is of course a splendidresourcein manyways,
and a groundbreaking
effortto createa largeelectroniccontent-area
of
traditional
materials.Nevertheless,
thosewho haveused it are wellaware
of its limitations.
I am not speakinghere of its cost-a subjectthathas
raisedmanyeyebrows-butofitsscholarly
design.For researchpurposes
the databasegrowsless and less usefulforthoseauthorswho would be
regarded,by traditionalmeasures,as the more or the most important
writers.
It's mostusefulforso-calledminorwriters.
This paradox comes
aboutfortworeasons.On one hand,thepoeticalworksof "minor"writers
are oftenhard to obtainsincetheyexistonlyin earlyeditions,whichare

VICTORIAN STUDIES

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383

rareand can be quite expensive.Byprovidingelectronictextsof

typically
thosehard-to-acquire
books,"The EnglishPoetryDatabase"suppliesscholarswithimportant
materials.On theotherhand,thepolicyofthe
primary
Database is-whereverpossible-to printfromcollectededitionsof the
the poet, the more likely
poets if such editionsexist.The better-known
therewill be collectededition(s). Furthermore,
the policyis to print
collectededitionsthatare out of copyright.
Efforts
are made to choose
"thebest"of such editions,of course,but in mostcases theeditionshave
seriousdeficiencies.
The Database wouldhave done muchbetterto have
first
editions
ofmostofitsauthors,or at anyrateto havemade its
printed
determinationsabout editions on scholastic rather than economic
grounds.But it did not do this.
To cut itscoststheDatabase made anotherdecisionthatproves
even more dismalso faras a scholaris concerned:it removesthe front
and back matterof the books in its corpus of texts.So we lose listsof
subscribersand importantprefatorymaterialsas well as variousnotes
and appendices.These excisionsstripthe Database of itsusefulnessfor
all kindsofthemostbasic scholarly
I nowuse
work.Speakingformyself,
theDatabase in onlytwokindsof operation:as a vastconcordance,5and
as an initialsourcefortextsthatwe don't havein our library.
In thelatter
case I stillhave to finda propertextof theworkI am dealingwith.
Most textualmaterialscurrently
availableon the Internethave
similarproblems,so faras a scholaris concerned.Indeed, mostfallwell
behindthestandardssetand maintainedbytheChadwyck-Healey
project.
These limitationsof currentInternet texts have made me
aware of the need for a strongscholarlyinfluenceon the design of
electroniceditions,in particularonline editions.I thereforedecided
to launch (in 1993) a small project that I hoped would stimulate
scholarsto workactivelyat influencingthe creationof good scholarly
editionsin electronicform.This projectis "EnglishPoetry1780-1910:
A Hypermedia Archiveof Critical Editions" (HTTP://WWW.LIB.VIRThe project was initiated
GINIA.EDU/ETEXT/BRITPO/BRITPO.HTML).
withtwohypermediaeditionsthatwere builtin graduatecoursesI ran
at the Universityof Virginia.These were editions of two worksby
Richard Polwhele, Mary Robinson, and Anne Batten Cristall.Since
then a numberof other editionshave been added to thisArchiveby
scholarsfromotherinstitutions,
and furthereditionsare in process of
In
a
few
months
mycurrentgraduate class willcomplete
completion.
and put up a hypermediaedition of the four numbersof The Germ,

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JEROME MCGANN

the importantjournal thatannounced the arrivaland the programof

the PreRaphaelitemovement.(The Archiveremainsopen to projects
thatanyonewishesto propose.)
At the heartof all this,formyselfat any rate,is "The Rossetti
Archive"and its associatedmaterials:a projectto presenta complete
corpusin hypermediaformof all thevisualand textualworksof Dante
GabrielRossettiin digitizedfacsimiles(HTTP://JEFFERSON.VILLAGE.VIRThisArchiveisbeingbuiltnotonly
GINIA.EDU/ROSSETTI/ROSSETTI.HTML).
to createa propereditionof Rossetti'sworks,somethingthathas never
been attempted(forobviousreasons),but to designa model forimagebased electronicscholarlyeditionsthatwould havewide applicability.6
In
thisrespecttheidea oftheRossettiArchivestandsbehindthefoundingof
"EnglishPoetry1780-1910:A HypermediaArchiveof CriticalEditions."
This kindofworkon theexistingarchiveof scholarlymaterials
shouldbe accompaniedbyefforts
to increasenetworkedand electronic
deliveryof currentresearchand criticism.Two importantmoves can
be made and are alreadytakingplace. First,when scholarlyjournals
publish theirworkonline and/or in electronicform,theyopen their
materialsto integrationwithina scholarlynetworkwhose range and
power outstripcurrentpaper-based publication.Furthermore,electronicpublishingpermitsscholarsto presenttheirworkin fargreater
depth and diversity.
Essayscan presentall theirdocumentaryevidence
as part of theirargument(in notes and appendices, or in electronic
linksto the originaldocuments).7Theycan also exploitfullytheuse of
illustrations
and images,includingvideofilmclips,as wellas audio clips.
of
(Examples all thesekindsof materialscan be foundin theelectronic
of Virginia.)
Culture,
journal Postmodern
publishedat University
A second usefultypeof electronicpublicationis the preprint,
whichdistributesresearchworkin online electronicforms,including
perhaps work in progress.Such a distributionmechanismhas been
launched for philosophicalwork (out of the University
of Chicago),
and the University
of Virginiahas just announced a similarprogram
forresearchand criticismin literatureand culturalstudies.8This essay
existenceon a serverat the University
you are readinghad itspre-print
of Virginia.
Finally,
anyonewhoworksin thesenewelectronicvenuesquickly
discoverstheirpotentialforinnovative
and
approachesto criticalwriting
While
we
can
at
thispoint onlybegin to imagine the
interpretation.
certainfeaturesof thisnew kindof textuality
are decisive.
possibilities,

VICTORIAN STUDIES

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Radiant Scholarshipand Criticism

When computer-literate
scholarsdiscuss the criticalpotential
of new technologies,theyregularlythinkin termsof database search
and analysis.One sees thisveryclearly,forexample,in the special issue
of Computers
and theHumanitiesdevoted to the question of "A New
DirectionforLiteraryStudies?"9
Whilesome oftheessaystakea linguistic and some a cognitiveapproach,all focuson the computer'spower
to expose general patternswithina large database of information.
whichare
Computersdo facilitatethesekindsof investigation,
Such
cannot
concern
themselves
methods,however,
clearlyimportant.
withaestheticissuesbecausetheyforegoanyengagement
withthe"minute
of specificworks.More crucially,
whiletheseapproachesview
particulars"
and non-transparent,
thecritical
theirmaterialsof studyas indeterminate
instruments
theydeployare not.Computersand computerprogramsmay
be (and oftenare) extremely
"complex";nonetheless,theirfunctionality
and self-transparent
structures.
dependsupon theirdeterminate
There are otherwaysto thinkabout computerizationas an aid
to criticalpractiseand reflection.First,unlikepaper-basedforms,electronictextsare more volatile and open-ended. This means that the
becomes a definingmode forscholarlywriting.Of
"work-in-progress"
course scholarshipand criticism,like art, is a long journey,but the
structureofknowledge-knowledgeas a continualpursuit
hypothetical
ratherthan an achieved condition-gets increased emphasisthrough
these new formsof studyand expression.
workcan
Second, thecumulativenatureof criticaland scholarly
in waysthatfartranscendthe capabilibe preservedand self-integrated
ties of paper-basedinstruments.Computerizationnot only vastlyinit enables much greater
creases the amount of accessibleinformation,
can be shaped,scaled,and negotiated.
in thewaysinformation
flexibility
This doesn't mean thathierarchiesof knowledgewillbe eliminated,as
has been sometimeshoped and sometimesfeared.Rather,it meansthat
hierarchiescan be determinedand need notbe determinate.
Knowledge
ordered for specificand consciousends. Under such
can be critically
conditions,whatis reconditeand whatis important,or whatis central
itself
and whatis peripheral,emergeas functionsof the criticalactivity
of
and need not standas givenhorizons thought.
defineswhathas been called the "interSuch formalflexibility
active"characterof knowledgepursuedin a networkedframeof refer-

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JEROME MCGANN

ence. The environment

is not so much a "readerly"as a "writerly"
one:
writerengagementratherthan reader response.As such, it mustalso
be enagaged in farmore self-consciously
collaborativeways.
The example of the RossettiArchiveillustratesthe situation
verywell.I don't have in mindso muchthe "scale"of theprojectin the
traditionalsense-as one mightspeak of thelargescale of theBollingen
Coleridgeedition,or anyothergreatscholarlyworkof thatkind.Such
projectshaveoftencalled groupsof scholarsto worktogether.But their
work,being codex-oriented,has a determinateshape and focus.When
the last volume is completed,the workis finished.It mayhave to be
revised,it will certainlybe extended, modified,superceded by later
scholarsand critics.Nonetheless,it is a workwhose coverswillat some
point close upon themselves.
The RossettiArchive,by contrast,is unfinishable.In this,its
initialphase of construction,
itwillbe builtin stagesthatwillgradually
release certainsetsof textualand visualmaterialsto thepublicdomain.
I imaginethatin about ten or twelveyearsthe entireinitialphase will
be complete.It willincludea hypermediaenvironment
ofall authorized
and
documents
as
well
as
all
manuscript
print
pictorialmaterials.(All
thatare known,thatis to say,or thathave everbeen knownof.)
Were the RossettiArchivea book project,we would say thatit
had been completedat thatpoint. But it won't be complete then,or
indeed at anytime,fortworeasons.First,it's being designedas someset of materials.It standsopen to
thingother than a self-integrated
within
the
to
integration
largestimaginableset of relatedinformation:
a hypotheticalArchiveof Archives.This design structureis built into
the RossettiArchiveat its most fundamentallevels. So, for example,
when theArchiveincorporatesa textof a Rossettiworkthatappeared
in a contemporaryperiodicallike TheFortnightly
the Archiveis
Review,
to
access
the
as
a
and
not
whole,
organized
periodical
just one (arbireconstructed)piece ofit.The desireditemis called byfollowing
trarily
a linkto itslocationin the periodical.
The completenessof the RossettiArchivethusdepends upon
the completenessof thenetworkof information
in whichit is imagined
to exist.Its completionhas to waitupon thecompletionof theArchive
of Archives.(Nevertheless,thoughits practicalcompletenessrequires
the emergence of the Archiveof Archives,it is alreadyconceptually
complete.)
Second, the RossettiArchivestandsopen not onlyto theentire

VICTORIAN STUDIES

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387

inheriteddepositoryof relatedmaterials,it awaitsthe comingof additionalmaterialsthatdo not as yetexist.

Those twogeneral conditionshave alwaysdefinedthe frameworkin whichscholarshipis carried on. Librarieshold and preserve
books,and they"update"theknowledgein theirholdingsbyincreasing
thoseholdings-by buyingand maintainingnewbooks and periodicals.
Beyondthe library,a communityof scholarshipand a networkof publishingset standardsfor legitimatingand disseminatinginformation.
This arrangementof responsibilitieshas evolved and stabilizeditself
over hundreds of years,as have the laws governingthese complex
arrangements.The electronicnetworkof information,however,has
turned this world upside down. We confrontnew sets of technical,
will it be to
material,and scholarlydemands. Whose responsibility
maintainvolatilescholarlyproductslike the RossettiArchiveand how
be carriedout? Because the RossettiArchive
willthose responsibilities
will outliveits makers,provisionhas to be made for a continuityof
authorityover all aspectsof the Archiveand otherworksof thatkind.
ofknowledgemakes
Nothingin thecurrentstructureof theinstitutions
provisionfortheproblemsraisedbytheseworks.But provisionswillbe
made because theymustbe. If historyis prophetic,we shall findthat
willevolveovertime,and thattheywillbe shaped by
the arrangements
the initiativeof thosewho are willingto "boldlyventurewhereno one
has thoughtto go."
The volatilecharacterofthesenewkindsofscholarlyeditionsdramaticchanges
so unliketheirmoretraditionalprecursors-forecasts
in thewaycriticismand interpretation
willbe carriedout. The remarkable spread of newsgroups,LISTSERVs, and real-timevirtualdiscourse
(via MUDs and MOOs) has created a highlyflexibleenvironmentfor
pursuingknowledge.The electronicpre-printinitiativesI mentioned
earlier are emerging,I am sure, in response to this radiant textual
network.The (so to speak) e-maillevelof electronicdiscourseis clearly
not an optimal one for disseminatingmore complex and extensive
scholarlyworks.Preprintsitesnot onlyhold such materialsmore efficritical
ciently,theycan be used to alterthecontactrangefordifferent
exchanges (to broader or more specializedaudiences).
willineviUnder such conditions,criticismand interpretation
tablybreak freeof the atomic forms-the monographand the scholessay-that haveguided ourworkforso long.'1Certain
arly/interpretive
recentcodex products-workslike The Telephone
Book,or much of the

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JEROME MCGANN

the impactthat
writingin a collectionlike A PoeticsofCriticism--mark
is havingon conventionaltext."Even the mosttradiradianttextuality
tional kinds of criticalwriting-thisessayyou are reading now-can
themselvesdependingon themediuminwhichthey
radicallytransform
are constructed.The paper formof thisworkin Victorian
Studiesis far
less permeablethantheelectronicpreprintform,itcannotincorporate
anythinglike the same range or varietyof materials,and it does not
interactwiththe scholarlycommunityin the same ways.At the moment-and one should emphasize the word "moment"-the printed
textof thisessayhas certainadvantagesovertheelectronictext.But the
advantagesreflecta temporaryconditionthatis disappearingrapidly.
I ventureto say (it is not muchof a prophecy),willnot
Victorian
Studies,
existas a printedvenue forverylong.
Pedagogyand the Scene of Learning
Finally,one should mention at least brieflythe educational
possibilities-someare currentrealities-forclassand courseworkthat
seeksto exploitbothwide and local area networking
facilities.Here the
fundamentaltool is e-mail,whichis being modifiedand adapted into
a varietyofvirtualdimensionsthatare usefulforinstructional
purposes.
Let me mentionjust one projecthere-Greg Ulmer's"Collective
Page,"whichhe is buildingas a courseto be offeredin thefallof 1995 at
the University
of Florida.'2Novel and interesting
as the projectis, one
recognizesthe species: the notoriousIN.S.OMNIA (InvisibleSeattle's
Omnia), whichevolvedthroughthe 1980s,is a clearancestor,and David
Blair'sWAXWEBan equallyclear currentanalogue.'3So Ulmer'sproject
is an indexofwhatis happeningevennow,and of thekindsof possibility
thatare in storefora net-basededucationalscene.
Ulmer's idea forthiscourse evolvedfromhis workin compositionand media courseshe teachesat Florida.This experienceled him
to the followingidea: "weare lookingfora collectiverhetoricto guide
the writingof a group page thatwe compose by each adding his/her
part to thewhole withoutunderstandingthe effectin advance,but we
receive the effectafterwardsby reading the collectivepage." Ulmer
goes on to add that
thecollectivepage willbe a representation
ofAmericannationalidentity
composed
as a discoursenetworkof identity
positions,showingthefullimportof theproblem-

VICTORIAN STUDIES

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389

atic includingthe latentand historically

buried as well as the manifestand specific;
and the negotiatedand oppositionalalternatives
as well as the preferredoutcomes
to
mention
absurd
and
as
(not
impossiblepositions well-site of possiblefreedom?)

The ultimatepurpose of the networkis to showitsusers/builders"the

fullnetworkin whichtheyare imbedded" as well as theirown involvementin thatnetwork,and the constraintsit imposeson all withinit.
Much could be said about thispedagogicaladventure-indeed,
the announcementof the projectsparkedan interesting
exchange on
the Net. That dialogue-both its site and its character-illustratesthe
changes thatare in storeforall of us. Ulmer's course willbe givenat
the University
of Florida but its time-spacewillbe, alreadyis, farmore
The course not onlysolicits
broadly-basedand interactively-imagined.
the "network"
it wantsto studyand test,it incorporatesitselfinto that
network;and it establishesitselfwithinthe scalarforms-broadly,local
area and wide-areaforms-withinwhichnetworkedenvironments
exist.
In termsof "VictorianStudies,"Ulmer'sprojectmightwellspur
us to move beyond our loose and gossipynetworkedexistence.The
VICTORIA listserveis all verywell and good, but its unsubscriptions
are eloquent. I am myselfregularlyon the verge of cancelling out,
thoughto date I simplywear down the Delete option.
It is timeto giveserious,collectivethoughtto howwe shalllive
and move and have our being withinthe networksof knowledgethat
are radiatingaround and throughus all.

NOTES
I would still
formyself,
'The ellipsisoriginallyread: "notto makeadvertisements
(1991)
suggestthatthe implicitand oftenexplicitsubjectof both The TextualCondition
and BlackRiders:TheVisible
(1993) is 'hypertext'(see in the latter
LanguageofModernism

the 'Dialogue on Dialogue' in particular)."

2To the extentthatthisethos energizesthe individualstudent,it has a salutary
effect;but itslegacyturnsbalefulwhen it diminishesour awarenessof (1) the historical
constructednessof all consciousness(not least of all thatformof consciousnesswe call
"reading"),and (2) thelibrary'sabilityto expose thevasthistoricalnetworks
bywhichwe
are transacted.
An electronic
3See C. M. Sperberg-McQueenand Lou Bernard,eds., Guidelines.

copy of the guidelines can be obtained via email at TEI@UIC.EDU. See also C. M.
Sperberg-McQueen,"Textin the ElectronicAge."
4See Jerome McGann, "The Rossetti Archive and Image-Based Electronic
Editing,"a preprintversionavailableat

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390

JEROMEMCGANN

See also Claus Huitfeldt;twootherstudiesbyHuitfeldtare

LIC/JJM2F/IMAGEBASE.HTML.
"MECS-A Multi-Element
Code System"and "MECS-WIT-A Registration
forthcoming:
Archivesat the University
of Bergen."
StandardfortheWittgenstein
50f course the concordance is farfromcomplete,so faras "EnglishPoetry"is
concerned-even "English Poetry"in book form.This is because the database is a
far-from-complete
corpus of "EnglishPoetry."
6TheRossettiArchiveis in factstillunderconstruction;
an initialsetofitsmaterials
of MichiganPress.The product
is scheduledforpublicationin twoyearsbytheUniversity
linkedto the presentessayis an experimentalmodel builtin 1994 to testout certainof its

structuralpremises.Two relatedprojectshave been initiatedunder the auspices of the

of Virginia'sInstitutefor Advanced Technologyin the Humanities(IATH),
University
whichwas the originalsponsorof the RossettiArchive.These are editingprojectsforthe

workofWilliamBlake and EmilyDickinson.Bothprojectsare connectedto IATH through

associatefellowships,
and the Blake projectbegan in earnestin the fallof 1995 at IATH
througha grantfromthe GettyFoundation.
7The online preprintversionof thisessayillustrateswhatI mean. See also the
in note 4.
mentioned
essay

8The InternationalPhilosophicalPreprintExchange (IPPE) can be accessed on

World-Wide
Web (HTTP://PHIL-PREPRINTS.L.CHIBA-U.AC.JP/IPPE@HTML).
The University
ofVirginia'spreprintserviceaddressis HTTP://ETEXT.LIB.VIRGINIA.EDU/OSI/OSI.HTML.
and theHumanities
27:5-6 (1993-94).
9Computers
borrow
the
1?I
metaphorof atomicformsfromNegroponte.
"See AvitalRonell;JulianaSpahr et al.
12Ulmerannounced the project on the INVENT-L listserve,which distributes
fromthe Florida Media ArtsCenter.The announcementthen sparked an interesting
exchange.

13For a livelynarrativeof the IN.S.OMNIA project see Wittig.The WAXWEB

World-WideWeb address is HTTP://BUG.VILLAGE.VIRGINIA.EDU;
the VRML browseris
HTTP://BUG.VILLAGE.VIRGINIA.EDU/VRML.

WORKS CITED
Texts in a One-DimensionalMedium." Wittgenstein
Huitfeldt,Claus. "Multidimensional
and Contemporary
Theories
ofLanguage.Ed. Paul Henry and Arild Utaker.Bergen:
the
from
Archivesat theUniversity
of Bergen5, 1992.
WorkingPapers
Wittgenstein
Negroponte,Nicholas. BeingDigital New York:AlfredA. Knopf,1995.
Book.Technology,
Electric
Lincoln:University
Ronell,Avital.TheTelephone
Skizophrenia,
Speech.
ofNebraskaPress,1989.
Buffalo:Leave Books, 1994.
Spahr,Juliana,et al., eds. A PoeticsofCriticism.
M.
C.
"Text
in
the
Electronic
Sperberg-McQueen,
Age: TextualStudyand TextEncoding,
withExamples fromMedieval Texts." Literary
and LinguisticComputing
6 (1991):
34-36.
and Interchange.
,and Lou Bernard,eds. Guidelines
forElectronic
AgeEncoding
Chicago
and Oxford:TEI P3 (TextEncodingInitiative),1994.
Rendezvous.
Hanover and London: WesleyanUniversity
Press,1994.
Wittig,Rob. Invisible

VICTORIAN STUDIES