Version (literature)

There is no consensus in edition philology about what constitutes a version . On the one hand, there are definitions that are more practical in terms of editing, on the other hand, formalistic ones and, thirdly, those that relate to the author .

Three definitions

In the case of a practical edition definition, the piece of text only becomes a version through the editor . An edition changes a work and over time, aesthetic-qualitative differences between versions develop. In this respect, an edition represents the fundamental form of crystallization of the historical process in which the meaning of a work of art changes with its relation to the historically defined subject.

The more formalistic definition emphasizes that a version is constituted by at least one variant and that this comes about by changing just one element, because this creates new relationships, i.e. a new system. (Hans Zeller) In this sense, ›text versions‹ are different versions of a work that relate to each other through text identity and can be distinguished from one another due to text variance. (Siegfried Scheibe) Because in-house translations can be viewed as versions, Klaus Gerlach argued in 1991 that text versions cannot be related to one another on the basis of text identity alone: Scheibe's definition of “version” should be supplemented by the aspect of text equivalence .

Definitions referring to the author emphasize that 'text versions' represent the work for the author in the context of a certain phase. (Siegfried Scheibe) Herbert Kraft et al. (2001) believe that orientation towards the author is not suitable for defining a textual structure.

Individual aspects

The term “version” accentuates the reception-oriented view of a work, according to Rüdiger Nutt-Kofoth. The term ›version‹ is related to that of the ›variant‹ in that the question must be asked “from what scope of variants or from what variant intensity instead of a version of a work it is necessary to speak of a new independent work.” In addition, Nutt-Kofoth suggests propose to speak of “changes” instead of “variants” from a supplementary production-oriented perspective.

It is not uncommon for a certain version of a work to be produced in the course of the publication of an edition of a work. This applies above all to the traditional Anglo-American type of editing (“copy-text editing”): “The text is a combination of readings from more than one document. The reading text has, by definition, never achieved material form before ", says Paul Eggert:" The principal aim is to establish the wording and accidentals of the reading text. "

literature

Herbert Kraft; Diana Schilling; Gert Vonhoff: Edition Philology . Lang, Frankfurt / New York 2001, ISBN 3-631-35676-5
Variants - Variants - Variantes . Edited by Christa Jansohn and Bodo Plachta. Niemeyer, Tübingen 2005, ISBN 3-484-29522-8
Plachta, Bodo: Edition Studies. An introduction to the method and practice of editing newer texts. 3rd, supplemented and updated edition, Reclam, Stuttgart 2013, ISBN 978-3-15-017603-0
Björn Michael Harms, “Version and Version”, Section I.2 (pp. 16–24) in: ‹Motivation from below›. On the version constitution of ‹Virginal› and ‹Laurin› , table of contents De Gruyter, Berlin 2013, ISBN 978-3-11-029695-2 , ISBN 978-3-11-029712-6
Mira Berghöfer, Anne-Elisabeth Beron, Fabian Etling, Gianna Hedderich, Melanie Stralla and Anne Wilken (editors): (un) documented. What remains of the document in the edition? , editio / Beihefte, 48, De Gruyter, Berlin 2020, ISBN 978-3-11-065600-8 , ISBN 978-3-11-069263-1 , ISBN 978-3-11-069286-0 , DOI: https: //doi.org/10.1515/9783110692631

Individual evidence

↑ ^a ^b ^c Herbert Kraft; Diana Schilling; Gert Vonhoff: Edition Philology . Lang, Frankfurt / New York 2001, ISBN 3631356765 . In it: I. The historicity of literary works: Edition als Kristallisationsform, pp. 9–10 and footnotes 1–14, pp. 223–224.
↑ Allan Dooley sums up the situation for the English-speaking region as follows: "Scholars disagree to some extent about the minimum amount of difference required to define a variant, and to a great extent about the amount of difference necessary to make a variant significant of meaningful" , quoted from his study Author and Printer in Victorian England , 1992, p. 160 in: Barbara Ravelhofer: "Variatio alla turca - Byron's The Giaour (1813)", in: Variants - Variants - Variantes , edited by Christa Jansohn and Bodo Plachta . Niemeyer, Tübingen 2005, ISBN 3-484-29522-8 , pp. 157-166, p. 158.
^ Hans Zeller: Structure and genesis in the editor. For German and English edition research . In: Edition and Effect . Edited by Wolfgang Haubrichs . Journal for Literary Studies and Linguistics 5, Issue 19/20, 1975, pp. 105–126. Quoted in Kraft et al. 2001, p. 224, footnote 11.
^ ^A ^b Siegfried Scheibe: On the editorial problem of the text. In: Problems of the new Germanistic edition , obtained from Norbert Oellers and Hartmut Steinecke, special issue of the Zeitschrift für deutsche Philologie , 101, 1982, pp. 12-29. Quoted in Kraft et al. 2001, p. 224, footnote 11.
↑ Referred to in: Dirk Van Hulle: "What Is the Word: Genetic and Generic Variants in Samuel Beckett 's Work", in: Variants - Variants - Variantes , edited by Christa Jansohn and Bodo Plachta. Niemeyer, Tübingen 2005, ISBN 3-484-29522-8 , pp. 223-231.
↑ Rüdiger Nutt-Kofoth: “Variants of Self-Presentation and the Torso of the Overall Project From My Life : Goethe's Autobiographical Publications”, in: Variants - Variants - Variantes , edited by Christa Jansohn and Bodo Plachta. Niemeyer, Tübingen 2005, ISBN 3-484-29522-8 , pp. 137–156, pp. 137/138. Nutt-Kofoth refers to Hans Zeller and Jelka Schildt: “Work or version of a work? On the problem of defining a work using the example of Conrad Ferdinand Meyer's poems. ”In: On work and text. Contributions to textology . Edited by Siegfried Scheibe and Christel Laufer. Berlin 1991, pp. 61–81 and Klaus Kanzog : “Structuring and restructuring in the text genesis. Try to find rules for the constitution of a work. ”In: On work and text. Contributions to textology. Edited by Siegfried Scheibe and Christel Laufer. Berlin 1991, pp. 87-97.
^ Paul Eggert (2005): "Variant Versions and International Copyright: The Case of Joseph Conrad's Under Western Eyes ", in: Variants - Variants - Variantes , edited by Christa Jansohn and Bodo Plachta. Niemeyer, Tübingen 2005, ISBN 3-484-29522-8 , pp. 201-212, p. 202.

Web links

University of Kiel, Introduction to Literary Studies, IX. Editionsphilologie , literaturwissenschaft-online.uni-kiel.de , accessed on April 1, 2014

[Kraft-etal-2001-1] Herbert Kraft; Diana Schilling; Gert Vonhoff: Edition Philology . Lang, Frankfurt / New York 2001, ISBN 3631356765 . In it: I. The historicity of literary works: Edition als Kristallisationsform, pp. 9–10 and footnotes 1–14, pp. 223–224.

[2] Allan Dooley sums up the situation for the English-speaking region as follows: "Scholars disagree to some extent about the minimum amount of difference required to define a variant, and to a great extent about the amount of difference necessary to make a variant significant of meaningful" , quoted from his study Author and Printer in Victorian England , 1992, p. 160 in: Barbara Ravelhofer: "Variatio alla turca - Byron's The Giaour (1813)", in: Variants - Variants - Variantes , edited by Christa Jansohn and Bodo Plachta . Niemeyer, Tübingen 2005, ISBN 3-484-29522-8 , pp. 157-166, p. 158.

[3] Hans Zeller: Structure and genesis in the editor. For German and English edition research . In: Edition and Effect . Edited by Wolfgang Haubrichs . Journal for Literary Studies and Linguistics 5, Issue 19/20, 1975, pp. 105–126. Quoted in Kraft et al. 2001, p. 224, footnote 11.

[Scheibe1982-4] A ^b Siegfried Scheibe: On the editorial problem of the text. In: Problems of the new Germanistic edition , obtained from Norbert Oellers and Hartmut Steinecke, special issue of the Zeitschrift für deutsche Philologie , 101, 1982, pp. 12-29. Quoted in Kraft et al. 2001, p. 224, footnote 11.

[5] Referred to in: Dirk Van Hulle: "What Is the Word: Genetic and Generic Variants in Samuel Beckett 's Work", in: Variants - Variants - Variantes , edited by Christa Jansohn and Bodo Plachta. Niemeyer, Tübingen 2005, ISBN 3-484-29522-8 , pp. 223-231.

[6] Rüdiger Nutt-Kofoth: “Variants of Self-Presentation and the Torso of the Overall Project From My Life : Goethe's Autobiographical Publications”, in: Variants - Variants - Variantes , edited by Christa Jansohn and Bodo Plachta. Niemeyer, Tübingen 2005, ISBN 3-484-29522-8 , pp. 137–156, pp. 137/138. Nutt-Kofoth refers to Hans Zeller and Jelka Schildt: “Work or version of a work? On the problem of defining a work using the example of Conrad Ferdinand Meyer's poems. ”In: On work and text. Contributions to textology . Edited by Siegfried Scheibe and Christel Laufer. Berlin 1991, pp. 61–81 and Klaus Kanzog : “Structuring and restructuring in the text genesis. Try to find rules for the constitution of a work. ”In: On work and text. Contributions to textology. Edited by Siegfried Scheibe and Christel Laufer. Berlin 1991, pp. 87-97.

[7] Paul Eggert (2005): "Variant Versions and International Copyright: The Case of Joseph Conrad's Under Western Eyes ", in: Variants - Variants - Variantes , edited by Christa Jansohn and Bodo Plachta. Niemeyer, Tübingen 2005, ISBN 3-484-29522-8 , pp. 201-212, p. 202.