What Might an Archive Know
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This document discusses the Digital Mitford project, which aims to create a fully annotated digital edition of the letters of Mary Russell Mitford. It describes some of the challenges of creating such a large collaborative project. It also discusses issues raised by theorist Randall Hanna regarding the role of annotators in constructing interpretations and communities of readers. The document examines how the Digital Mitford project approaches issues like contextualizing annotations, supporting principles of interpretation, and continually revising its practices.
![Mitfordian
“Connections”?
-‐-‐Mitford
to
Sir
William
Elford,
3
April
1815
(ed.
L’Estrange,
vol.
1
[1870]),
p.
306
“…her
family
connections
must
render
her
disagreeable
to
Miss
Austen,
since
she
is
the
sister-‐in-‐law
of
a
gentleman
who
is
at
law
with
Miss
A’s
brother
for
the
greater
part
of
his
fortune.*”
“You
must
have
remarked
how
much
her
stories
hinge
upon
entailed
estates;
doubtless
she
has
learned
to
dislike
entails.”
Editor’s
Note:
“*
Every
other
account
of
Jane
Austen,
from
whatever
quarter,
represents
her
as
handsome,
graceful,
amiable,
and
shy.”](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/mitfordannotationkeystonedh-160624142323/85/What-Might-an-Archive-Know-7-320.jpg)
![Annotation:
Creating
Communities
• “The
annotator,
if
[s]he's
a
good
one,
presents
a
reading
that
will
create
the
acceptable
range
of
conversation
within
the
group
[s]he
supposedly
serves.”
• “This
leads
me
to
suggest
that
questions
of
annotation
always
come
back
to
issues
of
communities
and
institutions
.
.
.”
-‐-‐Hanna,
“Annotation
as
Social
Practice,”
184](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/mitfordannotationkeystonedh-160624142323/85/What-Might-an-Archive-Know-8-320.jpg)
![Are
You
Being
Served?
• “The
annotator,
if
[s]he's
a
good
one,
presents
a
reading
that
will
create
the
acceptable
range
of
conversation
within
the
group
[s]he
supposedly
serves.”
• “This
leads
me
to
suggest
that
questions
of
annotation
always
come
back
to
issues
of
communities
and
institutions,
and
consequently
questions
of
power.”
• “At
least
one
question
one
should
ponder
at
length
.
.
.
is
precisely
that
of
power:
who
or
what
is
being
served
by
this
activity?”
-‐-‐Hanna,
“Annotation
as
Social
Practice,”
184](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/mitfordannotationkeystonedh-160624142323/85/What-Might-an-Archive-Know-27-320.jpg)
What Might an Archive Know
- 1. -‐-‐Elisa Beshero-‐Bondar (Project Director), University of Pittsburgh-‐Greensburg (@epyllia) -‐-‐Mary Erica Zimmer, The Editorial Institute, Boston University (@athenerica) -‐-‐Molly O’Donnell, University of Nevada, Las Vegas
- 5. Earlier Editions… Henry Ed. Rev. A. G. L’Estrange, 3 vols., 1870 2nd series, ed. Henry Chorley, 1872
- 7. Mitfordian “Connections”? -‐-‐Mitford to Sir William Elford, 3 April 1815 (ed. L’Estrange, vol. 1 [1870]), p. 306 “…her family connections must render her disagreeable to Miss Austen, since she is the sister-‐in-‐law of a gentleman who is at law with Miss A’s brother for the greater part of his fortune.*” “You must have remarked how much her stories hinge upon entailed estates; doubtless she has learned to dislike entails.” Editor’s Note: “* Every other account of Jane Austen, from whatever quarter, represents her as handsome, graceful, amiable, and shy.”
- 8. Annotation: Creating Communities • “The annotator, if [s]he's a good one, presents a reading that will create the acceptable range of conversation within the group [s]he supposedly serves.” • “This leads me to suggest that questions of annotation always come back to issues of communities and institutions . . .” -‐-‐Hanna, “Annotation as Social Practice,” 184
- 10. Digital Mitford • “That no such edition yet exists almost certainly reflects the challenging extent of a task that could not be completed without the assistance of a large and diversely specialized team of scholars.” -‐-‐Digital Mitford, “Methods and Practice” (mitford.pitt.edu)
- 13. “-‐ographies”: Digital Mitford’s site index
- 14. Site Index entry: Sir William Elford (sample: draft form)
- 15. Interpretive Grounds, via Granularity? – Hanna notes “the fear that the annotator will in fact become an interpreter, impose his being, in a double attack, on the reader and on the text.” • Hence, “twentieth-‐century annotators . . . are required to fragment their activities into tasks presented as rhetorically discrete, so they can never appear whole consciousnesses in touch with the text” (Hanna 180). • Yet “this rhetorical prescription seems . . . a way of allowing annotation to proceed as a form of benign meditation, a service profession, which it is not” (181).
- 16. Annotation-‐>Aggregation-‐> Interpretation -‐-‐from The Digital Mitford Coding Guidelines, “Contextual Annotation”
- 17. “Known Unknowns”: finding “Miss James”
- 27. Are You Being Served? • “The annotator, if [s]he's a good one, presents a reading that will create the acceptable range of conversation within the group [s]he supposedly serves.” • “This leads me to suggest that questions of annotation always come back to issues of communities and institutions, and consequently questions of power.” • “At least one question one should ponder at length . . . is precisely that of power: who or what is being served by this activity?” -‐-‐Hanna, “Annotation as Social Practice,” 184
- 29. Mobilizing Markup? -‐-‐from The Digital Mitford Codebook, “Contextual Annotation”
- 30. Supporting Principles and Praxis
- 32. Editing “Miss James” -‐-‐”Miss James” site index entry, May 2015, Digital Mitford
- 33. For “Known Unknowns”: Initial Results
- 34. For “Unknown Knowns”: Annotation as Iteration
- 35. Byronic Influences? “Oh! renowned committeemen! From all the selected fruits of all the poetical costermongers of Great Britain, Ireland, and Berwick-‐upon-‐Tweed, could ye choose nothing more promising than this green sour apple? I am really astonished that Lord Byron could write anything so stamped with the curse of mediocrity, that even the strong shadow of Dr. Busby fails to throw it out with anything like effect.” -‐-‐MRM to Sir William Elford, 18 October 1812
- 37. A Mitfordian Model… —MRM site index entry, May 2015, Digital Mitford project
- 39. Recalibration, Redux • Re: “what an annotator is doing”: – “My practice suggests to me that he is in fact creating himself as reader—and thus creating the reader of his work.” – “When my reading runs into blocks, I have to dissociate myself momentarily and become a researcher.” – “But eventually, this split within myself is healed, since I return to write in the most helpful fashion my reading as note or gloss . . .” -‐-‐Hanna, “Annotation as Social Practice,” 181