1991:2 - Universitetet i Bergen

At present we are loaking at twe aseas in literary research as examples
of hypertext. In literary criticisrn, traditional scholms have become
increasingly critical of quantitative studies, based on concordances. Thcy
argue hat there is little enpirical basis for these studies and thar they
can ofien Iead to attempts to solve 'non-problems" or at least they
cannot be related te traditional criticisrn. A project at Oxford is modelling
the Victorian multiplat aovel as e hyperkxh using Dickens' Little Dorril
as an example, the theory king tfrat the narrative produres of the
Victorian novelist are very sirnilar to the suuctures of a hypertext.
Studying the novel as a hypertext advances the thcoretic understanding
of how multi-sequential narrntive works and hcIps to unravel the
proliferating strands of hhe novel.
A second area which we are looking at, is the hypertext clectronic
critical edition. Traditional cri tical editions provide only one version
oi ihe text with foomotes and cornrnenmry. An electronic edirioa as a
hypertext can provide rnirltiplc versions of the text, image representation
of rnanuscripts, comrnenmy etc., plus retricval and browsing 1001s to
nid the study of the text.
These projecis are experimenhl at present. It will be interesting to
see how far they can go tawards achieving their objectives in a way
which satisfies the academic requirements of the discipline.
7. COLUBORATIVE PROJECTS
The introduction of information technology has affected the humanities
research in mothet way. It has made possible much largcr and co1-
laborative projecrs. These need activities which can be new to the
individual humanities scholar: management and organization. writing
grant proposals, handling the budgct. applications for more money once
the project has started. sharing work belween a number of people,
writing reports, kecping up publicity whilst developing the projecr. I
have hcard some of hese management activities described as not bcing
'scholarship', the irnplicatian being that they are inferior to rcsearch.
There docs seem to be a lear [hat embarking an a large project will
mean no more "research'.
Coilabomtion can be at more han one ieve1: between several people
in one arganization or between several organizations and the more
pcople rherc are involved in a projecl, the greater the ned For solid
ground niles on which it will operate.
One major area of collaboratian in the humanilies Is the consttuction
of very large databases. Here standardization of the data is very important
for use in the current project. and so that data is re-usable for other
futurc requirements, some of which may not yet be determined, and
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