Conference: Literature, philology and computers

[15-4-1998]

UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH

DEPARTMENT of ITALIAN

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

LITERATURE, PHILOLOGY AND COMPUTERS:

An international seminar

7-9 September 1998

The seminar was made possible thanks to a grant from the Faculty of

Arts for the year 1997-98 and it is organised in association with: The

Computer & Writing Association, University of Aberdeen; CTI Textual

Studies, University of Oxford; CRILet, Center for Literary Computing,

University of Rome; BOLLETTINO '900, Dept. of Italian, University of

Bologna.

The seminar, conducted in English, aims to bring together a

heterogeneous but significant group of scholars in order to promote

lively and informal discussion on the future of philology, writing,

and literary analysis in the digital support era. The conference will

be interdisciplinary and contributions are welcome from the fields of

literature, philology, writing and composition, linguistics, cognitive

science, psychology, etc.

1. Themes of the seminar and keynote speakers

2. Call for papers

3. List of contributors (provisional)

4. Registration Form

1. THEMES

• Encoding of linear and non-linear document sources*: Theory and

practice. Text encoding has been the central problem of humanities

computing for years. However, today the question is not only how to

achieve a standard for representing texts, but also how to structure

(concept mapping) and encode different sources of information (images,

sounds, etc.). What happens to structured information once it has left

its paper medium and become electronic? What does this process imply

for transmission of information? In this session, apart from

theoretical papers, there will be discussions on present conventions

(such as SGML, HTML, etc.) and future developments.

• Computers and Philology*: digital realisation of critical editions

and the possibilities of the WWWeb. New definitions of the concept of

the editio critica or abandonment of the concept of authorship? The

epistemology of text and the problems of text transmission will be at

the heart of this session, which will evaluate current projects and

examine the prospects opened up by the Internet.

• Text analysis and virtual data-banks*: new definitions of textual

criticism in the light of literary computing. How information

technology modifies the concept of source and interpretation,

challenging traditional historical disciplines. Presentation of

projects and applications in progress.

• Hype or Hypertext?* Critical evaluation of the theoretical

underpinning of the North American school (George Landow, Michael

Joyce, Ted Nelson, etc.), and assessment of the place of hypertext

theory in the history of books and writing. Review of the more

promising products available on line, and investigation of the

educational possibilities of hypertext in the study of languages and

literature.

• Keynote speakers* include: Lou Burnard (Oxford University);

Giuseppe Gigliozzi (University of Rome); Willard

McCarty (King's College, London); Francisco Marcos Marin (Universidad

Autónoma, Madrid); David Robey (University of Reading); Antonio

Zampolli (CNR, Pisa).

2. CALL FOR PAPERS

• IMPORTANT NOTICE*: due to time constraints, and to preserve the

creative dynamics of the seminar, the number of presentations will be

limited to 15.

• Contributions* should be 20 minutes in length and proposals in the

form of a 500 word abstract (preferably written in HTML) should be

submitted via e-mail by June 30th to: itadfp@srv0.arts.ed.ac.uk or

mc9809@mclink.it. All proposals will be reviewed, and authors of

accepted papers will be notified by July 15th. Abstracts of papers

will be published on the seminar web site.

For more information contact:

• Computers, Literature and Philology*

Department of Italian

The University of Edinburgh

David Hume Tower, George Square

Edinburgh EH8 9JX

Tel: 0131 650 3646

Fax: 0131 650 6536

Check the conference web site regularly

<http://www.ed.ac.uk/~esit04/italian.htm>

for updated information on the

seminar programme, venue and timetable, or send enquiries by email to:

Anna.Middleton@ed.ac.uk or the e-mail addresses mentioned above

• Conference fees*: £35 per person (academic) / £25 Associated

Institution / £15 (post-graduate).

This includes a buffet lunch on 8 September.

• Venue* (provisional): Edinburgh University, Room G10,

Adam Ferguson Building, George Square.

• Accommodation*: A limited number of single rooms are available at

Pollock Halls of Residence, University of Edinburgh, for 7, 8

September at £24 (20.35 + VAT) per night. Early booking advisable:

contact Dr Anna Middleton at Anna.Middleton@ed.ac.uk

3. CONTRIBUTORS (provisional)

Lou Burnard is a leading figure in the Computers and Humanities field,

and among the founders of the TEI (Text Encoding Initiative), the most

important project for the development of guidelines for the

preparation and interchange of electronic texts. He is currently

Manager of the Humanities Computing Unit at Oxford University

Computing Services.

Giuseppe Gigliozzi, University of Rome "La Sapienza", Department of

Linguistic & Literary Sciences. Founding director of CRILet, a

research centre for literary computing at University of Rome. Dr

Giuseppe Gigliozzi's scholarship centres on narrativity, text analysis

and encoding, and literary theory. He has published a number of

book-length contributions in the field of computers and the

humanities.

Francisco Marcos Marin, full professor of Linguistics, Universidad

Autónoma de Madrid, Departamento de Lingüística General, has been

working in the field of Computers and the Humanities since 1971. He is

the editor of Admyter, a series of advanced Cd-Roms of digitalised

manuscripts and incunabula of medieval Spanish literature (1992, 1993,

1998).

Willard McCarty, Senior lecturer at the King's College Centre for

Computing in the Humanities (CCH), editor of Humanist, and

Vice-President of the Association for Computers and the Humanities is

among the pioneers of literary computing. Among his various digital

projects there is the Analytical Onomasticon, "a printed and

electronic reference work to all devices of language by which persons

are named in the Metamorphoses of Ovid."

Federico Pellizzi, University of Bologna, Dept. of Italian. General

editor of Bollettino '900, one of the main electronic journals dealing

with Italian contemporary culture and literature, which has editorial

input from across Europe. Federico Pellizzi has recently organised an

international computers and literature conference at the Universita'

di Bologna (October 1996) which attracted participation from the likes

of George Landow and Ezio Raimondi.

Mario Ricciardi, University of Turin, full professor of Italian

Literature, Dept. of Communication Studies. Director of the programme

on Communication within the Arts Faculty of Turin University and

comissioning editor for the main imprints which publish academic books

on computing and literature (Bollati-Boringhieri, Franco Angeli, etc),

Mario Ricciardi is an influential theorist on computer literacy and

computer-assisted literary analysis.

Massimo Riva, Brown University, Director of

Graduate Studies of the Italian Studies Department and editor of the

Decameron Web works closely with the George Landow's Hypertext Group

at Brown University. He is also among the first organisers of a

Web-based Italian literature course.

David Robey is currently Professor of Italian at Manchester

University and moves in September to the University of Reading.

He has worked on literary theory and Renaissance Humanism, and is now

engaged in a computer-based analysis of the structure of sounds in the

Divine Comedy. He was Chair of the Verse Work Group of the Text

Encoding Initiative.

Antonio Zampolli, University of Pisa, full professor of Computational

Linguistics, director of the Instituto di Linguistica Computazionale,

CNR, Pisa. Antonio Zampolli has been working in the field of

Computational Linguistics since 1967 and is responsible for a number

of European projects related to Humanities and Computing.

Claire Warwick works for the Humanities Computing Unit at Oxford, on

the British National Corpus, and for the Faculty of English on high

level IT support for teaching and research in English literature and

language. Although her doctoral work was on Seventeenth Century

poetry, she is now increasingly interested in theories of electronic

textuality and the way in which it may effect scholarly editions, and

future research and teaching in English studies.

4. REGISTRATION FORM

"Literature, Philology and Computers: An International Seminar"

UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH, 7-9 SEPTEMBER 1998

I should like to attend the above seminar on September 7-9 1998

at the University of Edinburgh.

Name....................................................

Work address.........................................

Address for

Correspondence...................................................

Tel. No. (Work)

Tel No. (Home)

Registration £35/ Associated Institutions £25 / Student £15

..... I enclose a cheque/money order for £35

...... Associated Institutions (£25)

...... Student (£15)

...... I require accommodation for Monday 7 September and Tuesday

8 September and enclose a cheque/money order for forty eight pounds.

(Please tick as appropriate)

Please send by August 30 1998 completed form and cheque/money order

made out to the Department of Italian, University of Edinburgh to:

Anna Middleton, Department of Italian, University of Edinburgh, DHT,

George Square EH8 9JX

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Domenico Fiormonte

University of Edinburgh, Dept. of Italian

DHT, George Square

EH8 9XJ -- United Kingdom

Tel. 44+131-6503646 Fax: 44+131-6506536

E-mail: itadfp@srv0.arts.ed.ac.uk

http://www.ed.ac.uk/~esit04/italian.htm