Versioning Wordsworth's "Nutting" from Manuscript to Modern Publication
Advantages of the Digital Edition:
I knew from the start of this project that this edition would live online. A great deal of my undergraduate education was spent working with texts in this manner, but I had never tackled a project that I knew would be born, live, and survive completely digital. I've learned so much while making this edition, and I'd like to share with you how these evolving methods can only augment the texts we editors work so diligently to represent.
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There are some key differences between print and digital editions that must be considered before an editor embarks on their editing adventure. The digital edition, uniquely, is uninhibited by space restrictions caused by budget or printing and binding abilities. The digital transcriptions and digitized images only occupy as much space as is necessary to store them in the cloud. This blows the door to creative representation wide open, allowing the editor to fully conceptualize each bit of evidence they'll bring forward to make their case and how they can place it on the page. In developing this website to house my witnesses, I was able to explore many methods of representation and collation that simply would not have been possible were print space an issue and I think in many ways the reading experience is augmented by some of the more creative moves I made.
Also, information and interconnected threads can be as easily hidden in an online edition as shown, meaning the editor can take a step back and allow the reader or user to interact with as many elements of the rationale as they feel compelled to discover. I chose to implement this concept by making the opening elements of the rationale visible on the homepage (accessible and un-intimidating to a first-time reader or someone unfamiliar with the textual history of the poem) while stashing the more intricate elements of the variorum and apparatus (the traditionally more complex elements most readers overlook anyway) in individual pages which can only be accessed if the user is seeking them out. My intention in doing this was to make the edition both appealing to those new to this history as well as those returning as from a long journey on foot. I wanted to create an appealing, relaxed, edition that gently leads the user down the winding path Wordsworth laid for us.
Finally, I'd like to take a moment to comment on my experience running this project out of a public GitHub repository. I spent a great deal of time doing this kind of work on applications such as Google Docs, Adobe Acrobat, Excel, DropBox, and so on. It wasn't until this semester that I discovered the wonders of version control, but it has changed the way I edit texts and I am sure it has made me a better editor because of it. I know that every change I've made to my documents has been tracked, labelled, and stored for reference in both my cloud repository (accessible from anywhere with an internet connection) as well as on my desktop. I was able to create files right on GitHub that, while designed for code, worked perfectly for transcribing lines of poetry given the rolling line numbers, easy indenting, and seamless committing. Overall, my approach to collating and examining texts has changed exponentially and I am so grateful I was given the opportunity to experiment with all of these applications and interfaces at the discretion of my compliant professor Dr. Eggert. Without this kind of intellectual freedom I would not be nearly as far in my understanding of the myriad ways a edition can be done as I am now. Lastly, I would like to say that GitHub is absolutely a platform for humanities research, and those hesitant to try it (trust me, I know how intimidating the command line can be) should attach themselves to someone who is knowledgeable enough to teach it because once it sticks, it sticks. There are also tons of great resources for getting started with Git online. So toss aside your DropBox and Git Committed!