Text genetics

Author: (French) Debiasi / Wang Xiuhua
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-05-01
Features: Although textual genetics is expressed in numbers and is usually hypertextual, it remains a sensitive and aesthetic literary approach. The analysis of literary manuscripts is not very standardized: it not only focuses on "important documents" but also on second-rate works; it not only concerns normative texts but also on texts long forgotten and unearthed from archives. The principles of literary manuscript analysis require as much attention as possible to the author's writing, actions, emotions, and hesitant movements, advocating the discovery of the text through a series of drafts and revisions. Are these drafts and revisions the purpose of textual genetics analysis? To better understand the work: to grasp the inner workings of the writing, the author's hidden intentions, methods, and techniques, the parts repeatedly refined and ultimately deleted, the parts retained and expanded upon; to observe the author's sudden interruptions, typos, reflections on the past, speculations on the author's working methods and writing habits, to determine whether the author first wrote a plan or jumped straight into the writing process, and to trace the author's sources of materials and books used.