The U-M Press has established the Society for Early English and Norse Electronic Texts (SEENET). The society will acquire, produce and disseminate scholarly electronic editions of Old Norse, Old English and Middle English texts.
According to U-M Press editor Ellen Bauerle, “SEENET will combine the full capacities of computer technology with the highest standards of traditional scholarly editing to publish machine-readable texts with reliable introductory materials, annotations and apparatus.
“An electronic text offers unprecedented advantages to historians, literary critics, linguists and editors. Unlike earlier, printed critical texts,” Bauerle says, “the electronic text permits manipulations of individual manuscripts, archetypes and critical texts, as well as combination of each. Such texts lend themselves to sophisticated searches, concordancing, collations and other forms of text retrieval.”
Bauerle notes that historians in various fields approach the texts from different perspectives. For example, literary historians may study the history of the reception of the text, as shown by scribal changes or marginal notations.
Historical linguists may study developments in the history of language through access to large databases of scribal spellings.
Scholars interested in stylistic analysis are able to make more complete studies of metrical, lexical or syntactic patterning than are possible with printed text.
Bauerle says that the “extremely flexible nature of an electronic text also is ideal for representing complex textural traditions, even of works like Piers Plowman, where editors confront high degrees of ambiguity and uncertainty.”
Electronic editions also will accommodate scholars who prefer “best text” documentary editions, as well as those who want the best possible modern editorial reconstructions, Bauerle adds.
SEENET members will receive an annual newsletter and an opportunity to purchase disks at a modest price. The first disks are expected to be available in 1994.
Inquiries about the society may be directed to: Ellen Bauerle, U-M Press, P.O. Box 1104, Ann Arbor, MI 48106, Internet address: ellen_bauerle@UM.cc.
umich.edu; Michael Kehoe, marketing director, U-M Press, Internet address: michael_kehoe@UM.cc.umich.edu; or Prof. Hoyt Duggan, Department of English, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA 22903, Internet address: hnd@faraday.clas.virginia.edu.
