Abstract
This paper concurs with Mark Olsen's premise that computer-aided literature studies should take a different direction, one that is more suited to the computer's strength in analyzing large corpora of texts. However, the authors take issue with his conclusion that a reorientation of the notions of textual analysis is necessary in order to exploit the computer's capabilities. Contemporary medieval studies already provides us with models of textual analysis which are well suited to computer development. Though they stem from the particularities of medieval textual production, these models can perhaps be useful in the study of modern literatures.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Arn, Mary-Jo. “The Systematic Representation of Early Manuscripts in Computer Form.” InHistorical and Editorial Studies in Medieval and Early Modern English. Eds. Mary-Jo Arn, Hanneke Wirtjes and Hans Jansen. Groningen: Wolters-Noordhoff, 1985, pp. 209–19.
Bédier, Joseph, ed.La Chanson de Roland. Paris: l'Edition d'Art H. Piazza, 1937.
Blumenfeld, Renate. “Remarques sursonge/mensonge.”Romania, 101 (1980), 385–90.
Braet, Herman.Le Songe dans la Chanson de geste au XIIe Siècle. Romanica Gandensia 15. Liège: Imprimerie George Michiels, 1975.
Breure, Leen. “The Modern Devotion: The Structure of a Concept.” InComputer Applications to Medieval Studies. Ed. Anne Gilmour-Bryson. Kalamazoo: Medieval Institute Publications, Western Michigan University, 1984, pp. 135–46.
Cerquiglini, Bernard.Eloge de la variante: histoire critique de la philologie. Paris: Seuil, 1989.
Chrétien de Troyes.Erec et Enide. Ed. Mario Roques. CFMA 80. Paris: Champion, 1952.
Foulet, Alfred and K.D. Uitti. “The Prologue to theLais of Marie de France: A Reconsideration.”Romance Philology, 35 (1981), 242–49.
Freeman, Michelle A. “Structural Transpositions and Intertextuality: Chrétien's Cligés.”Medievalia et Humanistica, 2 (1982), 149–63.
Genet, Jean-Philippe. “Automatic Text Processing and Factorial Analysis: A Method for Determining the Lexicographical Horizon of Expectations.” InComputer Applications to Medieval Studies. Ed. Anne Gilmour-Bryson. Kalamazoo: Medieval Institute Publications, Western Michigan University, 1984, pp. 147–75.
Greco, Gina L. “Dream, Vision and Prophecy: Sacred Historiography in theEstoire del saint Graal and theEstoire de Merlin.” Dissertation, Princeton University, 1992.
Huot, Sylvia.From Song to Book. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1987.
Marie de France.Les lais de Marie de France. Ed. Jean Rychner. CFMA 93. Paris: Champion, 1966.
Marín, Francisco Marcos. “Computers and Text Editing.”Romance Philology, 35 (1991), 102–22.
O'Brien O'Keefe, Catherine and W. Rundell. “An Information Theoretic Approach to the Written Transmission of Old English.”Computers and the Humanities, 23 (1989), 459–67.
Ollier, Marie Louise.Lexique et concordance de Chrétien de Troyes: D'après la copie Guiot. Paris: J. Vrin, 1989.
Olsen, Mark. “Signs, Symbols and Discourses: A New Direction for Computer-aided Literature Studies.” See this issue.
Poirion, Daniel Poirion. “Écriture et ré-écriture au Moyen Age.”Littérature, 41 (1981), 109–118.
Robinson, Peter M.W. “The Collation of Textual Criticism of Icelandic Manuscripts, I: Collation.”Literary and Linguistic Computing, 4 (1989), 98–105.
Robinson, Peter M.W. “Report on the Textual Criticism Challenge 1991.” Posted onHumanist Discussion Group 6.0124, (July 10, 1992).
Rudel, Jaufré.The Songs of Jaufré Rudel. Ed. Rupert Pickens. Studies and Texts, 41. Toronto: Pontifical Institute of Medieval Studies, 1978.
Rychner, Jean.Contribution à l'étude des fabliaux: Variantes, remaniements, dégradations. 2 vols. Université de Neuchâtel, Receuil de travaux publiés par la Faculté des lettres, 28. Neuchatel: Faculté des lettres; Geneva: Droz, 1960.
Speer, Mary B. “Editing Old French Texts in the Eighties: Theory and Practice.”Romance Philology, 35, 1 (1991), 7–43.
Speer, Mary B. “Wrestling with Change: Old French Textual Criticism andMouvance.”Olifant, 7 (1980), 311–26.
Uitti, Karl D. and Gina L. Greco. “Computerization, Canonicity and the Old French Scribe: the 12th and 13th Centuries.”Text, Transactions of the Society for Textual Scholarship. Forthcoming.
Walters, Lori. “Le rôle du scribe dans l'organisation des romans de Chrétien de Troyes.”Romania, 106 (1985), 303–325.
Zumthor, Paul.Essai de poétique médiévale. Paris: Seuil, 1972.
Zumthor, Paul. “Intertextualité et Mouvance.”Littérature, 41 (1981), 8–16.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Additional information
Peter Shoemaker is an advanced graduate student in the Department of Romance Languages and Literature at Princeton University. He is preparing a dissertation on the rhetoric of patronage in the seventeenth century.
Gina Greco is an Assistant Professor at Portland State University in Portland, Oregon. She is currently collaborating on a database of the manuscript tradition of Chretien de Troyes'sLe Chevalier de la Charrette. Her other research interests include the Old French prose Lancelot-Grail cycle.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Greco, G.L., Shoemaker, P. Intertextuality and large corpora: A medievalist approach. Comput Hum 27, 349–355 (1993). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01829385
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01829385