Digital Critical Edition of Middle-Period Works by Arthur Schnitzler (1862-1931)

This project will participate in international efforts to provide full critical resources for the study of the great Austrian Modernist writer, Arthur Schnitzler (1862-1931). There is no other German-speaking author with the established international prominence of Schnitzler still lacking a critical edition. This is in part due to the historical contingency of the bulk of this Jewish writer's papers being saved from Vienna in 1938 and brought to Cambridge, in part also to the challenging nature of the author's handwriting, especially in the earlier documents. The editorial work that has been carried out on his writings is limited, and such editions of individual works or collections of texts as do exist are of mixed quality. With this piecemeal picture, there is a pressing need for a comprehensive and reliable critical edition of the literary and associated writings, with scholarly commentary and apparatus. The fundamental objective here is to reveal the still part-hidden creative identity and writing processes of this very significant author. A large community of scholars - academics and students - would stand to draw great benefit from the new critical resources that are proposed.

Schnitzler is an author whose career spans the entire epoch of Classical Modernism (around 1890-1930), accompanying its development with a keen and productive sense of its problems and contradictions. While his work is often viewed through the clichés of certain recurrent themes (love, sex, dream, play, death), it in fact encompasses an extraordinary range, with crucial relevance to many of the key cultural and social discourses of his time. Schnitzler also often worked on individual texts over many years, even decades, and versions of one text would be incorporated into plans for another, not infrequently crossing genre boundaries. There is thus a complex genetic and contextual picture to be developed through the detailed editorial work.

The UK team will produce editions of works from the important middle period of Schnitzler's career (1904-1914). This will cover three major canonical texts (the novel, 'Der Weg ins Freie' (1908), and the dramas 'Das weite Land' (1911) and 'Professor Bernhardi' (1912)), as well as five lesser-known dramas using puppet-like figures to explore questions of human agency. Analysis of the genetic development of this set of works will enable a massively enriched appreciation of a number of key themes for Schnitzler: Jewish cultural politics, medical ethics, embodied agency and performance, and the function of space and place. As well as investigating these matters for the purposes of Schnitzler scholarship, the team will explore their relevance to topical matters of concern through a strategic set of impact-related activities.

The proposed edition will both provide an opportunity to appreciate the dynamics of the complex creative process that produced Schnitzler's published writings and offer an immensely rich basis for extensive, cultural critical research. At the same time, it will provide a model case for testing and advancing editorial principles and processes. Beyond the provision of reliable texts with critical commentary, the project aims to use innovative digital techniques to develop an exemplary reference resource. At the core of this is the production of an integral, digital edition of the author's works using XML (Extensible Markup Language). The digital edition will be embedded in a publicly accessible online portal, which will also provide other information on the author and his cultural connections and context.

The project incorporates plans for a variety of other outputs, intended for both specialist and public benefit. There will be a series of conferences, workshops and symposia, in conjunction with a set of public presentations and performances. The core output through the digital portal will be supplemented by six major print publications, in monograph, edited book and journal form.

The 'pathways to impact' attachment expands on 5 channels through which the project engages with academic, public, business, and third-sector beneficiaries. These are: (1) medical humanities, with the Wellcome Trust (London symposia on 'dying well' and 'doctors as writers'); (2) transcultural humanities, with the Austrian Cultural Forum, a Department of the Austrian Embassy in the UK (symposia in London on Anglophone Schnitzler reception and historical/contemporary Jewish identity); (3) public theatre (performances of puppet plays in Bristol and Wuppertal; London production of 'Professor Bernhardi'; conference on margins of the human in European theatre); (4) digital exploration (Cambridge conference on digital critical editing; portal, including Frederick Baker's story spheres); (5) documentary/ambient cinema (Baker's installation, to accompany the digital edition conference, and documentary on Schnitzler and visual culture).

Impact on the academic community internationally via editions, conferences/symposia and portal will be high. The UK team's contribution to providing a critical edition for a major European dramatist and narrative writer is crucial. Conferences and symposia address important cross-disciplinary themes and practice (editions, reception, ethics, the nature of the human, ethnicity, science/art interface). Fields affected include modern languages; literary studies; theatre history; film; 19/20C history and politics; Jewish studies; medical humanities. Impact on state of the art in digital edition practice and theory ('Editionswissenschaft') promises to be very significant, developing and applying in a sustained manner important new methodologies and editorial techniques, sharing the evolving practice of continental European editors with the UK. Contributions to German/Austrian studies will help sustain (numerically) relatively small disciplines, by supporting next-generation academics (RA, PhDs) and allowing these disciplines to demonstrate relevance to the larger disciplines of literary and cultural studies in the Anglo-Saxon world.

A broad spectrum of the culturally engaged general public stands to benefit from the work, via the following channels: performance (in 3 cities); the portal/story spheres/documentary/installation; symposia (ACF and Wellcome Trust both have significant outreach); translations; and, in a more specialized way, the 'crowdsourcing' transcription. Benefits include enhanced cultural awareness, therefore quality of life, through increased transcultural understanding, engagement with non-Anglophone culture, and high-level debate of ethical and political issues.

Potential for social and policy impact is ensured via the involvement of Jewish groups and policy makers in ACF events; and the medical humanities strand feeds into local/national health and community policy and training via medical practitioners involved.

Enterprise impact is delivered mainly via academically informed performance and the involvement of theatre professionals in the ACF/Wellcome events. Cooperation between [Foreign Affairs], Green Ginger/Puppet Place and the project team informs academic outputs, stimulates theatre practice and has commercial benefits.

The portal includes teaching materials facilitating comparative study of an internationally significant Modernist writer. These are aimed at undergraduate audiences and, in Germany/Austria, also at secondary school level.

Impact will be planned and measured by the project team (with administrative assistance), led by RA and Vilain, who currently has overall responsibility for REF impact case studies for Bristol Modern Languages (working with a specialist who takes up an AHRC impact-related post in 2013). Events will all have tailored advertising for different communities; attendance and online usage will be monitored and questionnaires/focus groups employed. Impact will be a standing agenda item for quarterly meetings of the project team.