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Radiant TextualityAuthor(s): Jerome McGannReviewed work(s):Source: Victorian Studies, Vol. 39, No. 3 (Spring, 1996), pp. 379-390Published by: Indiana University PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3829451 .
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REVIEW ESSAY
RADIANT TEXTUALITY
JEROME
MCGANN
A recent
iterary ewsgroup
n
the nternet
osed
the
following
question:
Has
any
of
you
written esearch
n
hypertext
ormat?
Would
you
accept
a
dissertation
written
n
hypertext?
hese
questions
reflect n
anxiety
hat s common
today
because
of
the star-
tling
mpact
of
technological
hange
on
humanities
nd
literarytudy.
The
anxiety rows
rom ertain
unhelpful
nd
erroneous
ssumptions
about the nature
of
these
technologies,
n one
hand,
and
the
tradi-
tionalwork
f
critical esearch nd
study
n the
other.
Furthermore,
he venue
bearing
the
questions
told its own
story:
hat hese
assumptions perate rrespective
f
one's enthusiasm
or one's
skepticism
bout these
mportant
ultural
hanges.
Newsgroup -mail s a hotmedium; tsolicits uick responses.
So
with
he electronic
haracters f the
questions
till
radiating
n
my
eyes,
shot
off
he
following
esponse.
There's a
good
deal
of
research
n
hypertext
ormat
lready
out
there,
ome of
it n
paper.
1.
ANY
scholarly-critical
dition s research
n
hypertext
or-
mat.
And
here one wants
o
remind
veryone
hat research
tc.,
nd
litcrit,shardly onfined othesetpiece ssay-indeed, that orm sone
of
the most
constricting
nd restrictive e
have evolved. ..
2.
Look at the back issues
of
Postmodern
ulture,
specially
he
last
couple
(HTTP://JEFFERSON.VILLAGE.VIRGINIA.EDU/PMC/CON-
TENTS.ALL.HTML).
3. Look at
the
general publications
f UVA's Institute
or
Advanced
Technology
in the Humanities
(HTTP://JEFFERSON.VIL-
LAGE.VIRGINIA.EDU/GENERALPUBS.HTML).
4.
Finally,
ook at various nline
homepages
for ourses.Aren't
courses
research
rojects
in
my xperience,
ourses re sceneswhere
SPRING
1996
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JEROME
MCGANN
everyone
earns;
teaching
s a
topdown
model of
learning
've never
been able
to find
very
ttractive. r much
help.
As
with
virtually
a
trembling
ord
here)
all
newsgroup
om-
munication,
his
one
comes
in
a
kind of informal horthand.
et
me
expand
what was
trying
o
say.
The Return
of
the
Library
To
date,
computerization
n
humanitieshas been
mainly
o-
cated
in
work
closely
ssociated with he
library,
nd with
ibrary-ori-
ented
research
projects.
his has
happened
for
ne
simple
nd obvious
reason: materialdemands
have driven ibraries o
study
nd
exploit
computerized
tools,
which
allow
these research facilities o
gain
a
measure
of controlover the massive mountsof data
they
re called
upon tomanage.
For
humanities nd
especially
iterary
cholars,
he
library
s
the center of the
world,
the one
thing
needful.
(As
Borges
thought,
it
might
even
BE
the
world;
at
any
rate,
t is the
vehicle we ride
to
know nd
experience
the
world.)
Of
course,
sometimes
we
forget
he
importance
f
the
ibrary,
s our
twentieth-century
xperience
shows
only
too
plainly.
n the
tight
ittle sland of humanities
tudies,
the
assault
upon memory
nd historical
nowledge
nstituted
n
the 1930s
created
a
fifty-yeareriod
when
the
humanities nd
literary
tudies
tested
the
possibilities
of
abandoning
their
bibliographical
center.
Stanley
Fish's notorious
pronouncement
ca.
1975)
that he did not
need a
library
o
do what
he
does,
is
an index
of
a distinctive
and
recently
ominant)
ethos.2
The
imperatives riving
ibraries nd museums oward
reater
computerization
re
not
the same as those thathave
brought
he now
well-knownreturn o history n literarynd humanities cholarship.
Nevertheless,
convergence
f the twainhas come
about,
and now the
two movements-the
computerization
f the
archives,
nd the re-his-
toricizing
f
scholarship-are
continually
timulating
ach other oward
new
ventures.
The Mutation f
Theory
to Practise
Under
these
circumstances,
umanities cholars nd educators
have been drawn
back
toward
deep
and serious
re-engagement
ith
VICTORIAN
STUDIES
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RADIANT TEXTUALITY
anotherfundamental
ubdiscipline
f theirwork:
extual nd editorial
theory
nd
method.
Although
theory
o
longer
defines road
ranges
of
scholarly
ctivity,
s it did in
recent
years,
t
has
preserved vigorous
life
n
textual tudies.As a
consequence,
a rather
nusual situation as
emerged
during
he
past
five
years
or so.
First,
theory
ften arries
highly
ractical
dimension. he
brilliantheoretical
ursuit
f standardizedlectronic
markup
cheme-
epitomized
n the
development
fSGML and the
ubsequent
volution f
the
TEI
guidelines
or lectronic
exts-may
be taken
s
the
epitome
of
the
kind
of theoretical
ctivity
am
talking
bout.3Here theoretical
ork
is
undertaken
nder clear
practical
orizon. ertain ools or
rganizing
and
analyzing
lectronic
extsweredesired nd
eventually
onstructed.
s
so
often
appens
n
activities
f this
kind,
he
work
tself
xposes, erhaps
even
creates,
ew
deas
and
possibilities
hatdemand
further
tudy
nd
exploration.In thiscase, the limitationsf SGML and TEI as general
approaches
have
generated mportant
evisionary
lternatives.
heMECS
system
f
markup
developed
for
the
Wittgenstein
roject
ppears
to
be
one;
another
s the
hybrid
pproach
being
ollowed
y
heRossetti
rchive
and associatedworks
ike
the
Blake and the
Emily
ickinson
rojects).4
Second,
textual nd
editorialwork re once
again
being
seen
forwhat
they
re and
have
always
een:
the
fundamental
round
for
any
kind of
historically-oriented
ntellectualwork.
This realizationhas
been
coming
about,
I
think,
xactly
because
the
archives
re
going
electronic.
That
event-the
creation
of
networked
rchives
holding
vast
bodies
of electronic
nd
digitized
materials-has been
exerting
enormous
pressure
pon
scholars o
become
intimately
nvolved
n
the
design
and
creation
f
those
archives.
Scholarship
n the
Age
of
NetworkedArchives
We stand
t the
beginning
f a
great
cholarly
evolution.
ven
now we
operate
under
the
extraordinaryromise
his
evolution
olds
out: to
integrate
he
resources
of all
libraries,
museums,
nd archives
and to
make those
resources
vailable to
all
persons
no matterwhere
they
reside
physically.
he hardware
nd software ools
that
help
to
realize
these
expectations
re under
development,
ndeed,
are well
advanced.Although hese technical evices re indispensable, cholars
like ourselveswill
exert most
influenceon
their
design by
focussing
attention
n what
we do and
have
traditionally
one,
and
(implicitly
r
SPRING 1996
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JEROME
MCGANN
explicitly) sking
that
these
new
tools be
designed
to
help
us do
our
customary
ork
better.
In this
espect
would
emphasize
three
research reas.
Two of
these
center n
the scholar's
principal
research
tool,
the
library.
he
third
nvestigates
ew methods
f
criticismnd
interpretation.
First,
we have
to
begin
transforming
ur
existing aper-based
archives
f
material
ntousable
electronic orms
textual
s
well
s
graph-
ical). Second,we have to move our currentwork nto electronic enues
that nhance
both the
range
nd
the
effectivenessf
whatwe do.
Finally,
we
must
egin
xperimenting
ith he
ritical
pportunities
hat hese
new
media
hold out to us.
Contrary
o the
expectations
reated
by
the
explo-
sion of the
nternet,
raditionalcholars
who
navigate
hat ea of
nforma-
tion
have
yet
o find
muchto
help
them
n
their
isciplinary
ork.
ockets
of
exceptions
xist,
nd
if
you
are a
scholar f
postmodernism
he
Net s
a richode indeed.The latterxception nderscoresheproblem: heNet
has
not
yet
ccumulated
hosebodies of
content hat
we need if
we are to
do
our work.As a
Victorianist
still
have
to
go
to the
ibrary
o
seek
out
copies
of
the
nineteenth-century
ooks and
periodicals
need,
and
I
continue o
depend
upon
traditional
ibliographical
ools-books and
catalogues-to
develop
my
esearch
rojects.
The
task f
digitizing
ur
archives-notjust
he
rchival
ystems,
but
the
corpus
of
materials
housed in
our libraries
nd
museums-is
enormous.
Nonetheless,
t
is
a
job
that s
already
underway
nd
it will
continue.
A
core of
digitized
eferencematerialss
emerging
uickly
nd
the
rapid expansion
of
this ore is
taking lace every
ay.
That
process
in
its turn
xerts
steady
ressure
o
digitize
he
regular
holdings.
t
is
crucial
hat
cholars ake n
active
ole
n
shaping
hese
vents ince
they
affect he
character
f our
most
fundamental
esources.
The
example
of the
Chadwyck-Healey
English
oetry
atabase
is an eloquentone. This is ofcourse a splendidresource nmanyways,
and a
groundbreaking
ffort
o
create
large
electronic
ontent-areaf
traditional
aterials.
evertheless,
hosewho
have
used it are well
aware
of
its
imitations. am
not
speaking
here of its
cost-a
subject
hat
has
raised
many yebrows-but
f
ts
cholarly esign.
or
research
urposes
the
database
grows
ess
and less
useful
orthose
authorswho
would
be
regarded,
y
traditional
measures,
s
the more
or
the most
mportant
writers.t's
most
useful
or
o-called
minor
writers.
his
paradox
comes
about
for wo
easons.
On one
hand,
he
poetical
works f minor
riters
are
often
hard to
obtain ince
they
xist
nly
n
early
ditions,
hich re
VICTORIAN
STUDIES
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RADIANT
TEXTUALITY
typically
are
nd
can
be
quite
expensive.
y
providing
lectronic
exts f
those
hard-to-acquire
ooks,
The
English
oetry
atabase
upplies
chol-
arswith
mportant
rimary
aterials. n the
other
hand,
he
policy
fthe
Database
is-wherever
possible-to
rom
ollected ditions f the
poets
if
such
editions xist.
The
better-known
he
poet,
the
more
ikely
there
willbe collected
edition(s).
Furthermore,
he
policy
s to
collected ditions
hat
re
out
of
copyright.
ffortsre
made
to
choose
thebest of sucheditions,fcourse, ut nmost ases theeditions ave
serious
eficiencies.
he
Database would
have
done
much
better o have
printed
irstditions
f most f ts
uthors,
r
at
any
rate o
havemade
its
determinations bout editions on
scholastic rather than
economic
grounds.
ut t
did
not
do
this.
To
cut tscosts heDatabase
made another ecision hat
proves
even more dismal so
far
s a scholar s
concerned: t removes he front
and back matter f the books in itscorpusof texts. o we lose lists f
subscribers nd
important refatory
materials
s
well as variousnotes
and
appendices.
These excisions
trip
he Database
of tsusefulness or
all kinds f the
most
basic
scholarly
ork.
peaking
or
myself,
now
use
the Database
in
only
wokinds
f
operation:
s a vast
oncordance,5
nd
as
an
initial ourcefor exts hatwe don't have
n
our
ibrary.
n the
atter
case
I
stillhave to find
proper
text f the
work
am
dealing
with.
Most textualmaterials
urrently
vailable
on
the nternet ave
similar
roblems,
o far s a scholar sconcerned.
ndeed,
mostfallwell
behind
he
tandards
et nd maintained
y
he
Chadwyck-Healeyroject.
These limitations f current nternet texts have made
me
aware of
the need for a
strong
cholarly
nfluenceon the
design
of
electronic
ditions,
n
particular
nline editions. therefore
ecided
to launch
(in
1993)
a small
project
that
I
hoped
would stimulate
scholarsto
work
ctively
t
influencing
he creation
of
good
scholarly
editions nelectronic orm.Thisproject s English oetry 780-1910:
A
Hypermedia
Archive
of
Critical Editions
HTTP://WWW.LIB.VIR-
GINIA.EDU/ETEXT/BRITPO/BRITPO.HTML).
The
project
was initiated
with wo
hypermedia
ditions hatwere built
n
graduate
courses ran
at the
University
f
Virginia.
These
were editions
of
two works
by
Richard
Polwhele,
Mary
Robinson,
and Anne Batten Cristall.
Since
then
a
number
of
other editions
have been added to thisArchive
by
scholarsfrom ther
nstitutions,
nd
further ditions re in
process
of
completion.
n
a fewmonths
my
current
raduate
class will
complete
and
put up
a
hypermedia
dition of the four
numbersof The
Germ,
SPRING
1996
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JEROME
MCGANN
the
mportantournal
that nnounced
the
arrival nd the
program
f
the
PreRaphaelite
movement.
The
Archive emains
open
to
projects
that
nyone
wishesto
propose.)
At
the heart
of
all
this,
or
myself
t
any
rate,
s The
Rossetti
Archive
nd
its associatedmaterials:
project
to
present complete
corpus
n
hypermedia
orm f
all the visual nd textualworks f Dante
GabrielRossetti
n
digitized
acsimiles
HTTP://JEFFERSON.VILLAGE.VIR-
GINIA.EDU/ROSSETTI/ROSSETTI.HTML).
ThisArchives
being
built ot
only
to create
proper
edition f Rossetti's
orks,
omething
hathas never
been
attempted
for
obvious
easons),
but to
design
model for
mage-
based electronic
cholarly
ditions hatwould
have
wide
applicability.6
n
this
espect
he dea ofthe
Rossetti rchive tands
ehind
he
founding
f
English oetry
780-1910:A
Hypermedia
rchive
f
Critical
ditions.
This kindof
work
n the
existing
rchive f
scholarly
materials
should be accompaniedbyeffortso ncreasenetworkednd electronic
delivery
f
current
esearch nd criticism.
wo
important
moves
can
be
made and are
already
taking
place.
First,
when
scholarlyournals
publish
theirworkonline
and/or
in
electronic
orm,
hey
pen
their
materials o
integration
within
scholarly
etworkwhose
range
and
power
outstrip
urrent
paper-based publication.
Furthermore,
lec-
tronic
publishing ermits
cholars o
present
heir
work
n
far
greater
depth
and
diversity.ssays
an
present
ll their
ocumentary
vidence
as
part
of their
rgument
in
notes and
appendices,
or in
electronic
links
o the
original
ocuments).7
hey
can also
exploitfully
he use of
illustrationsnd
images,
ncluding
ideo film
lips,
s
well
s
audio
clips.
(Examples
of all
thesekinds
f
materials an be
found
n
the
electronic
journal
Postmodern
ulture,
ublished
t
University
f
Virginia.)
A
second
useful
ype
f
electronic
ublication
s
the
preprint,
which
distributes esearch
work
n
online
electronic
orms,
ncluding
perhapswork n progress.Such a distributionmechanismhas been
launched
for
philosophical
work
out
of the
University
f
Chicago),
and the
University
f
Virginia
has
ust
announced a similar
program
forresearch nd
criticismn
literature nd
cultural tudies.8 his
essay
you
are
reading
had
its
pre-print
xistence
n
a
server t the
University
of
Virginia.
Finally,nyone
who
works n
thesenew lectronic
enues
uickly
discovers heir
otential
or
nnovative
pproaches
o critical
riting
nd
interpretation.
hile we can at
this
point
only begin
to
imagine
the
possibilities,
ertain
eatures f
thisnew
kind of
textuality
re
decisive.
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Radiant
Scholarship
nd Criticism
When
computer-literate
cholars
discuss the
critical
potential
of new
technologies, hey
egularly
hink
n
terms
of
database
search
and
analysis.
ne sees this
ery learly,
or
xample,
n
the
special
ssue
of
Computers
nd
theHumanities evoted to the
question
of A
New
Direction
or
Literary
tudies? 9While ome
of
the
essays
ake
linguis-
ticand some a
cognitive
pproach,
all focuson the
computer's
power
to
expose general patterns
within
large
database of
information.
Computers
o
facilitate hese
kindsof
investigation,
hich
re
clearly
mportant.
uch
methods,however,
annot concern themselves
with
estheticssues
ecause
they
orego ny ngagement
ith
he minute
particulars
f
specific
orks.More
crucially,
hile hese
pproaches
iew
their
materials f
study
s indeterminatend
non-transparent,
hecritical
instrumentshey eploy re not.Computersndcomputer rogramsmay
be
(and
often
re)
extremely
complex ;
onetheless,
heir
unctionality
depends
upon
their
eterminatend
self-transparent
tructures.
There
are
other
ways
o think
bout
computerization
s an
aid
to critical
ractise
nd reflection.
irst,
nlike
paper-based
orms,
lec-
tronic
texts re more volatile and
open-ended.
This means
that
the
work-in-progress
ecomes a
defining
mode
for
scholarlywriting.
f
course
scholarship
nd
criticism,
ike
art,
s a
long ourney,
but
the
hypothetical
tructure f
knowledge-knowledge
s a continual
ursuit
rather
han an achieved
condition-gets
increased
emphasis through
these
new forms f
study
nd
expression.
Second,
thecumulative ature
f critical nd
scholarly
ork an
be
preserved
nd
self-integrated
n
ways
hat
far
ranscend
he
capabili-
ties
of
paper-based
nstruments.
omputerization
ot
only vastly
n-
creases the
amount of
accessible
nformation,
t enables much
greater
flexibilityn thewaysnformationanbe shaped, caled, ndnegotiated.
This
doesn't mean that
hierarchies f
knowledge
willbe
eliminated,
s
has
been sometimes
oped
and sometimes
eared.
Rather,
t
means
that
hierarchies
an be determined nd need
notbe determinate.
nowledge
can
be
critically
rdered for
specific
nd conscious ends.
Under
such
conditions,
what s recondite
nd what s
important,
r
what s central
and
what s
peripheral,
merge
as functions
f the critical
ctivity
tself
and need not stand s givenhorizons fthought.
Such
formal
lexibility
efines
what
has been
called
the inter-
active
haracter f
knowledge ursued
n
a
networked rame f
refer-
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MCGANN
ence. The
environments not so
much
a
readerly
s
a
writerly
ne:
writer
ngagement
ather han
reader
response.
As
such,
t
must
lso
be
enagaged
in
far
more
self-consciously
ollaborative
ways.
The
example
of the
RossettiArchive
llustrates he
situation
very
well. don't
have
n
mind
o
much the
scale
of
the
project
n
the
traditional
ense-as
one
might peak
of the
arge
cale
of
the
Bollingen
Coleridge
edition,
r
any
other
great
cholarly
ork f
that
kind.
Such
projectshave often alledgroupsofscholars owork ogether. uttheir
work,
eing
codex-oriented,
as a
determinate
hape
and
focus.
When
the
last
volume is
completed,
he work
s finished.
t
may
have
to be
revised,
t
will
certainly
e
extended, modified,
uperceded
by
later
scholars nd
critics.
Nonetheless,
t
s
a
work
whose
coverswill
t
some
point
close
upon
themselves.
The
Rossetti
Archive,
y
contrast,
s
unfinishable.
n
this,
ts
initial hase ofconstruction,twillbe built n stages hatwillgradually
release certain
etsof textual
nd
visual
materials o
the
public
domain.
I
imagine
that n
about ten
or
twelve
ears
he
entire nitial
phase
will
be
complete.
t
will
nclude
hypermedia
nvironmentfall
authorized
manuscript
nd
documents
s well as all
pictorial
materials.
All
that
re
known,
hat s
to
say,
r
thathave ever been
known
f.)
Were the
Rossetti
Archive
book
project,
we
would
say
that t
had been
completed
at that
point.
But it
won't
be
complete
then,
or
indeed at
any
time,
or
two
reasons.
First,
t's
being
designed
as
some-
thing
other than a
self-integrated
et
of
materials.
t stands
open
to
integration
ithin he
argest
maginable
et of
related
nformation:
o
a
hypothetical
rchive
f Archives.
his
design
structures
built nto
the
Rossetti
Archive
t
its most
fundamental
evels.
So,
for
example,
when the
Archive
incorporates
textof
a
Rossetti
work hat
ppeared
in
a
contemporary
eriodical
ike
The
Fortnightly
eview,
he
Archive
s
organizedto access theperiodicalas a whole,and not ust one (arbi-
trarily
econstructed)
iece
of
t.
The desired
tem s
called
by
following
a
link
to its
ocation n
the
periodical.
The
completeness
f
the
Rossetti
Archive
hus
depends
upon
the
completeness
f
the
network f
nformationn
which
t
s
magined
to
exist.
ts
completion
has to
wait
upon
the
completion
f
the
Archive
of Archives.
Nevertheless,
hough
ts
practical
ompleteness
equires
the
emergence
of the
Archive
f
Archives,
t
is
alreadyconceptually
complete.)
Second,
the Rossetti
rchive
tands
pen
not
only
o the
entire
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RADIANT
TEXTUALITY
inherited
epository
f
related
materials,
t
awaits he
coming
of
addi-
tional
materials hatdo not
as
yet
exist.
Those
two
general
conditions
have
always
defined
the frame-
work
n
which
cholarship
s
carried
on.
Libraries
hold and
preserve
books,
and
they
update
he
knowledge
n
their
holdings
y
ncreasing
those
holdings-by buying
nd
maintaining
ew books and
periodicals.
Beyond
the
ibrary, community
f
scholarship
nd
a
network
f
pub-
lishing
et standardsfor
egitimating
nd
disseminating
nformation.
This
arrangement
f
responsibilities
as evolved and
stabilized tself
over hundreds
of
years,
as
have
the
laws
governing
hese
complex
arrangements.
he electronic
network
f
information,
owever,
as
turned this world
upside
down. We
confront
new
sets of
technical,
material,
nd
scholarly
demands. Whose
responsibility
ill
it be to
maintain olatile
cholarly
roducts
ike the
RossettiArchive nd how
will thoseresponsibilitiese carriedout? Because theRossettiArchive
will
outlive ts
makers,
provision
has to
be made for a
continuity
f
authority
ver all
aspects
of
the Archive
nd other
works f
thatkind.
Nothing
n
the current tructure f the nstitutionsf
knowledge
makes
provision
or he
problems
aised
by
theseworks. ut
provisions
illbe
made because
they
must
be. If
history
s
prophetic,
we
shall
find that
the
arrangements
illevolveover
time,
nd that
hey
will
be
shaped by
the nitiative
f
those
who are
willing
o
boldly
enturewhere
no one
has
thought
o
go.
The
volatile haracter fthesenew
kinds f
cholarly
ditions-
so unlike
heir
more
traditional
recursors-forecasts
ramatic
hanges
in the
way
riticism nd
interpretation
ill
be carriedout. The remark-
able
spread
of
newsgroups,
ISTSERVs,
and real-time irtual iscourse
(via
MUDs
and
MOOs)
has created
a
highly
lexible nvironment or
pursuing
knowledge.
The electronic
pre-print
nitiatives
mentioned
earlierare emerging, am sure, in responseto this radiant textual
network.
he
(so
to
speak)
e-mail evel
of
electronic iscourse
s
clearly
not
an
optimal
one for
disseminating
more
complex
and
extensive
scholarly
works.
reprint
ites
not
only
hold such materials
more effi-
ciently,hey
an be used to
alterthe contact
range
for
differentritical
exchanges
to
broader or more
specialized
audiences).
Under such
conditions,
riticism
nd
interpretation
ill
nevi-
tablybreak freeof the atomicforms-themonograph nd the schol-
arly/interpretive
ssay-that
have
guided
our work or o
long.'1
Certain
recent
codex
products-works
ike The
Telephone
ook,
r
much of the
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JEROME
MCGANN
writing
n
a
collection ike
A Poetics
f
Criticism--mark
he
mpact
that
radiant
extuality
s
having
n
conventional
ext. Even
the
most
tradi-
tional
kinds
of
critical
writing-this
ssayyou
are
reading
now-can
radically
ransform
hemselves
epending
on the medium n
which
hey
are
constructed. he
paper
form f
this
work
n
Victoriantudiess far
less
permeable
than
he electronic
reprint
orm,
t
cannot
ncorporate
anything
ike
the
same
range
or
variety
f
materials,
nd
it
does
not
interactwiththe
scholarly
ommunity
n the same
ways.
At the mo-
ment-and one should
emphasize
the
word moment -the
printed
text f
this
ssay
has
certain
dvantages
ver
the
electronic
ext.
But
the
advantages
eflect
temporary
onditionthat s
disappearing
apidly.
Victorian
tudies,
venture o
say
it
s
not much of a
prophecy),
will
not
exist s a
printed
enue for
very ong.
Pedagogy nd theScene of
Learning
Finally,
ne
should
mention at
least
briefly
he
educational
possibilities-some
re
current
ealities-for lass
and
course
work hat
seeksto
exploit
both
wide and
local
area
networking
acilities. ere
the
fundamental ool is
e-mail,
which s
being
modified
nd
adapted
into
a
variety
f
virtual
imensions hat re
useful
or
nstructional
urposes.
Let mementionustoneproject ere-Greg Ulmer's Collective
Page,
which
he
is
building
s
a courseto
be
offeredn
thefall f
1995 at
the
University
f
Florida.'2
Novel and
interesting
s
the
project
s,
one
recognizes
he
species:
the
notorious
N.S.OMNIA
(Invisible
eattle's
Omnia),
which
volved
hrough
he
1980s,
s
a clear
ancestor,
nd
David
Blair's
WAXWEB
n
equally
lear
current
nalogue.'3
o
Ulmer's
project
is
an
index
of
what s
happening
ven
now,
nd of
the
kinds f
possibility
that
re
in
store or
net-based
ducational
cene.
Ulmer's dea for this ourseevolvedfromhiswork n
compo-
sition
nd media
courseshe
teaches t
Florida.This
experience
ed him
to
the
following
dea:
we are
looking
for
collective
hetoric
o
guide
the
writing
f a
group
page
that
we
compose by
each
adding
his/her
part
to
the
whole
without
nderstanding
he
effect
n
advance,
but
we
receive
the effect
fterwards
y
reading
the
collective
page.
Ulmer
goes
on
to add
that
the
collective
age
will
be
a
representation
f
Americannational
dentityomposed
as
a discourse
network f
dentity ositions,
howing
he
full
mport
f
the
problem-
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RADIANT EXTUALITY
atic
ncluding
he
atent nd
historically
uried
as well
as the manifest nd
specific;
and the
negotiated
nd
oppositional
lternativess well as
the
preferred
utcomes
(not
to mention bsurd nd
impossible
ositions
s
well-site
of
possible
freedom?)
The ultimate
urpose
of
the
networks to
show
ts
users/builders
the
full
network
n
which
they
re
imbedded
as
well
as their wn nvolve-
ment n that
network,
nd the
constraints
t
mposes
on all within t.
Much
could be said about
this
edagogicaladventure-indeed,
the announcement f the
project
sparked
an
interestingxchange
on
the Net. That
dialogue-both
its
site and
its
character-illustrates he
changes
that
re
in
store
forall of
us. Ulmer's course
will
be
given
at
the
University
f
Florida
but
ts
time-space
will
be,
already
s,
far
more
broadly-based
nd
interactively-imagined.
he course
not
only
olicits
the
network
t
wants o
study
nd
test,
t
ncorporates
tself
nto
that
network;
nd it
establishes
tself
within he scalar
forms-broadly,
ocal
area andwide-area orms-within hichnetworkednvironmentsxist.
In
terms f Victorian
tudies,
Ulmer's
projectmight
well
pur
us to move
beyond
our loose and
gossipy
networked xistence.The
VICTORIA listserve s all
very
well and
good,
but its
unsubscriptions
are
eloquent.
I
am
myself egularly
n the
verge
of
cancelling
out,
though
o date
I
simply
wear
down the Delete
option.
It
is timeto
give
erious,
ollective
hought
o
how
we shall ive
and moveand have our beingwithin henetworks fknowledge hat
are
radiating
round
and
through
s
all.
NOTES
'The
ellipsis riginally
ead: not o make advertisementsor
myself,
would still
suggest
hat
the
mplicit
nd often
xplicit ubject
of both
The Textual ondition
1991)
and BlackRiders:
he
Visible
anguage f
Modernism
1993)
is
'hypertext'see
in
the atter
the
Dialogue
on
Dialogue'
in
particular).
2To the extent hat his
thos
energizes
he
ndividual
tudent,
t has a
salutary
effect;
ut
ts
egacy
urns
aleful
when t diminishes
ur
awareness
f
(1)
the
historical
constructedness f all consciousness
not
least of all
thatform f
consciousnesswe call
reading ),
nd
(2)
the
ibrary's
bility
o
expose
the
vast
historical etworks
y
whichwe
are transacted.
3See
C. M.
Sperberg-McQueen
nd Lou
Bernard,
ds.,
Guidelines.
n
electronic
copy
of the
guidelines
can be obtained via email
at
See also C. M.
Sperberg-McQueen, Text n the ElectronicAge.
4See
Jerome
McGann,
The
Rossetti
Archive and
Image-Based
Electronic
Editing, preprint
ersion
vailable t
HTTP://JEFFERSON.VILLAGE.VIRGINIA.EDU/PUB-
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JEROME
MCGANN
LIC/JJM2F/IMAGEBASE.HTML.
See
also Claus
Huitfeldt;
woother tudies
by
Huitfeldt re
forthcoming:
MECS-A
Multi-Element ode
System
nd MECS-WIT-A
Registration
Standardfor
the
Wittgenstein
rchives t the
University
f
Bergen.
50f course
the
concordance
is farfrom
omplete,
o far s
EnglishPoetry
s
concerned-even
English
Poetry
n
book
form. This is
because
the database is
a
far-from-completeorpus
of
English
Poetry.
6TheRossetti rchive
s
n fact till
nder
construction;
n initial et
of
tsmaterials
is
scheduledfor
publication
n
two
years
y
the
University
f
Michigan
ress.The
product
linked o thepresent ssay s an experimentalmodel built n 1994 to test ut certain f ts
structural
remises.
Two related
projects
have been initiated nder the
auspices
of
the
University
f
Virginia's
nstitute or Advanced
Technology
n
the Humanities
IATH),
which
was
the
original
ponsor
f the
Rossetti
rchive. hese
are
editing
rojects
or
he
work
f
William
Blake
and
Emily
ickinson. oth
projects
re connected
o
ATH
through
associate
fellowships,
nd the Blake
projectbegan
in
earnest
n
the
fall of
1995
at
IATH
through grant
rom he
Getty
oundation.
7The
online
preprint
ersion
f
this
ssay
llustrates hat mean. See also the
essay
mentioned
n
note
4.
8The nternational
hilosophical reprint xchange
IPPE)
can be accessed on
World-WideWeb
(HTTP://PHIL-PREPRINTS.L.CHIBA-U.AC.JP/IPPE@HTML).
The
University
of
Virginia's
reprint
ervice ddress s
HTTP://ETEXT.LIB.VIRGINIA.EDU/OSI/OSI.HTML.
9Computers
nd
the
Humanities
7:5-6
(1993-94).
1?I
borrow he
metaphor
f
atomic
forms
rom
Negroponte.
See
Avital
Ronell;
Juliana
Spahr
et al.
12Ulmer
nnounced the
project
on the
INVENT-L
istserve,
hich distributes
from
the
Florida Media
Arts
Center.The announcement hen
sparked
an
interesting
exchange.
13For
a
lively
narrative
f the
IN.S.OMNIA
project
see
Wittig.
he WAXWEB
World-WideWeb address
is
HTTP://BUG.VILLAGE.VIRGINIA.EDU;
the VRML browser
s
HTTP://BUG.VILLAGE.VIRGINIA.EDU/VRML.
WORKS CITED
Huitfeldt,
laus.
Multidimensional
exts n a
One-DimensionalMedium.
Wittgenstein
and ContemporaryheoriesfLanguage. d. Paul Henryand ArildUtaker.Bergen:
Working apers
from
he
Wittgenstein
rchives
t
the
University
f
Bergen
5,
1992.
Negroponte,
Nicholas.
Being igital
New
York:AlfredA.
Knopf,
995.
Ronell,
Avital.The
Telephone
ook.
Technology,kizophrenia,
lectric
peech.
incoln:
University
of
Nebraska
ress,
989.
Spahr,
Juliana,
t
al.,
eds.
A
Poetics
f
Criticism.
uffalo:
eave
Books,
1994.
Sperberg-McQueen,
.
M.
Text n the
Electronic
Age:
Textual
tudy
nd Text
Encoding,
with
Examples
from
Medieval Texts.
Literary
nd
Linguistic
omputing
(1991):
34-36.
,and
Lou
Bernard,
ds.
Guidelines
or
lectronic
ge ncoding
nd
nterchange.hicago
and Oxford: EI P3
(Text
Encoding
nitiative),
994.
Wittig,
ob. Invisible
endezvous. anover
and London:
Wesleyan
University
ress,
1994.
VICTORIAN
STUDIES
390
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