Manuscript Digitisation: How applying publishing and content packaging theory can move us forward

Using Gérard Genette's seminal work on 'paratexts' (defined by Genette as items attached to texts which fundamentally influence a reader's reception of a text, such as, for example, blurbs, jacket designs, prefaces etc,), "Paratext" (Cambridge, 1997), this paper will explore two main areas. The first constitutes a practical enquiry into the ways in which digital media have been used to render the paratexts of medieval manuscripts and, to do this, I shall refer to an existing project as a kind of case study, one which acts representatively, due to its use of software features, methods and tools which have been applied in a number of digital/medieval projects. I shall use this case study as a lens for exploring how successfully manuscriptural paratexts are represented by completed digitisation projects by applying Genette’s theory of paratextual spaces. I shall then consider some of the latest developments in digital tools for medievalists so as to consider what might be possible now with the benefit of hindsight, and given the rapid pace of technological developments.

The second area of enquiry, which also makes use of Genette's theory, will constitute a consideration of whether - just as it is now commonplace to see the manuscript itself as a paratext to a text - we can also see the digitised manuscript as a paratext in its own right, that is as a ‘threshold’ which can deliver the reader a new and nuanced reading of the text. Ultimately, the paper will explore how the broader application of publishing theory could move manuscript digitisation projects forward because, just as book publishing actually constitutes an exercise in content packaging - which is traditionally the realm of publishing professionals -, the process of creating digital manuscripts, and digital editions of medieval texts, can also be seem clearly in this light.

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About the speaker

Dr Leah Tether is Postdoctoral Research Fellow/Lecturer in Publishing, Cultures of the Digital Economy Institute, Anglia Ruskin University

Leah completed a PhD in Medieval French Literature at Durham University, specifically looking at early medieval works of continuation and their mechanics, both in a textual and manuscriptural sense. Since finishing her PhD, she has spent a year working in Durham's Development and Alumni Relations Office, seeking sources of strategic funding from Durham alumni - specifically what is termed as major gifts.

Leah also has a background in trade publishing, having spent time as an editor at Penguin Books and also being responsible for editing Durham University's alumni magazine, and is now assisting on Anglia Ruskin University's MA Publishing course.

Her current research focuses on manuscript digitisation and the complex questions raised by the practice.

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