The Frankenstein Variorum Challenge:

Finding a Clearer View of Change Over Time

Elisa Beshero-Bondar | Rikk Mulligan | Raffaele Viglianti:

@epyllia | @CritRikk | @raffazizzi

DH2019: Utrecht University, Fri. 12 July @ 2pm, panel LP-38: Location: Schele Maagd

Link to these slides: http://bit.ly/fv-change

Variorum - Change over time

Most immediate context: Darwin Online (ed. Barbara Bordalejo), except...

Frankenstein Variorum only compares five witnesses
Frankenstein Variorum incorporates MS witnesses
Frankenstein Variorum integrates earlier digital editions made by others

James Rieger, ed., first new edition of 1818 in 141

years : inline collation of "Thomas" w/ 1818,

1831 variants in endnotes

Legend:

Stuart Curran and Jack Lynch: PA Electronic Edition (PAEE) , collation of 1818 and 1831: HTML

Nora Crook crit. ed of 1818, variants of "Thomas", 1823, and 1831 in endnotes (P&C MWS collected works)

Romantic Circles TEI conversion of PAEE ; separates the texts of 1818 and 1831; collation via Juxta

1974

~mid-1990s

1996

Charles Robinson, The Frankenstein Notebooks (Garland): print facsimile of 1816 ms drafts

2007

Shelley-Godwin Archive publishes diplomatic edition of 1816 ms drafts

print edition

digital edition

Legend:

2013

2017

Critical and Diplomatic Editions Leading to the Frankenstein Variorum Project

Frankenstein Variorum Project :

assembly/proof-correcting of PAEE files; OCR/proof-correcting 1823; "bridge" TEI edition of S-GA notebook files; automated collation; incorporating "Thomas" copy text

PA Electronic Edition (mid 1990s): 1818 vs 1831

started from base HTML 1.0 files
up-converted to clean, simple XML
- ”on its way” to TEI (structural elements in text)
- prepared for machine-assisted collation (via collateX): including element tags
- deep hierarchy of novel ”flattened” to milestones: <div type="volume"/>, <p/>, etc.
corrected against photofacsimiles of 1818 and 1831 print publications

Prepared from OCR new XML of 1823 edition

prepared by William Godwin, the first edition bearing the name ”Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley” on the title page
XML syntax matches that of 1818 and 1831 editions

Working with MS versions

S-GA diplomatic edition of the 1816 Notebooks,
- encoded surface-by-surface, line-by-line
- required resequencing to collate
Thomas copy marginalia
- prepared new XML from 1818 edition, with <add>, <del>, <note> elements

Shelley-Godwin Archive: sample page surface:

Shelley-Godwin Archive

sample surface encoding from S-GA

<surface xmlns:mith="http://mith.umd.edu/sc/ns1#" lrx="3847" lry="5342" 
partOf="#ox-frankenstein_volume_i" ulx="0" uly="0" 
mith:folio="21r" mith:shelfmark="MS. Abinger c. 56" 
xml:base="https://raw.githubusercontent.com/
umd-mith/sga/master/data/tei/ox/ox-ms_abinger_c56/ox-ms_abinger_c56-0045.xml" 
xml:id="ox-ms_abinger_c56-0045">
  <graphic url="http://shelleygodwinarchive.org/images/ox/ms_abinger_c56/ms_abinger_c56-0045.jp2"/>
  <zone rend="bordered" type="pagination"><line>75</line></zone>
  <zone type="library"><line>21</line></zone>
<!-- lines of text elided here -->
<line>to form. His limbs were in proportion</line>
<line>and I had selected his features <del rend="strikethrough">h</del> as</line>
<line><mod>
        <del rend="strikethrough">handsome</del>
        <del rend="unmarked">.</del>
        <anchor xml:id="c56-0045.01"/>
      </mod>
      <mod>
        <del rend="strikethrough">Handsome</del>
        <add hand="#pbs" place="superlinear">Beautiful</add>
      </mod>; Great God! His</line>

<!-- at the end of the surface encoding, encoding material in a left-margin zone:  --->

<zone corresp="#c56-0045.01" type="left_margin">
    <line><add><mod>
          <del rend="strikethrough">handsome</del>
          <add hand="#pbs" place="superlinear">beautiful.</add>
        </mod></add></line>
  </zone>
<!-- other marginal insertions encoded -->
</surface>

S-GA: resequenced / compressed for collation

<surface lrx="3847" lry="5342" 
partOf="#ox-frankenstein_volume_i" 
ulx="0" uly="0" folio="21r" shelfmark="MS. Abinger c. 56" base="ox-ms_abinger_c56/ox-ms_abinger_c56-0045.xml" 
id="ox-ms_abinger_c56-0045" sID="ox-ms_abinger_c56-0045"/>
      <graphic url="http://shelleygodwinarchive.org/images/ox/ms_abinger_c56/ms_abinger_c56-0045.jp2"/>
      <zone type="main" sID="c56-0045__main"/> 

<lb n="c56-0045__main__17"/> 
         <del rend="strikethrough" sID="c56-0045__main__d2e9811"/>But how<del eID="c56-0045__main__d2e9811"/> How can I describe
      my <lb n="c56-0045__main__18"/> emotion at this catastrophe; or how 

<w ana="start"/>deli<lb n="c56-0045__main__19"/>neate<w ana="end"/> 

the wretch whom with such <lb n="c56-0045__main__20"/> infinite pains and care I had endeavoured <lb n="c56-0045__main__21"/> to form. His limbs were in proportion <lb n="c56-0045__main__22"/> and I had selected his features <del rend="strikethrough" sID="c56-0045__main__d2e9830"/>h<del eID="c56-0045__main__d2e9830"/> as <lb n="c56-0045__main__23"/> 
         <mod sID="c56-0045__main__d2e9835"/>
            <del rend="strikethrough" sID="c56-0045__main__d2e9837"/>handsome<del eID="c56-0045__main__d2e9837"/>
            <mdel>.</mdel>
            <anchor xml:id="c56-0045.01"/>
            <zone corresp="#c56-0045.01" type="left_margin" sID="c56-0045__left_margin"/> 
               <lb n="c56-0045__left_margin__1"/> 
               <add sID="c56-0045__left_margin__d2e9849"/>
                  <mod sID="c56-0045__left_margin__d2e9851"/>
                     <del rend="strikethrough" sID="c56-0045__left_margin__d2e9853"/>handsome<del eID="c56-0045__left_margin__d2e9853"/>
                     <add hand="#pbs" place="superlinear" sID="c56-0045__left_margin__d2e9856"/>beautiful.<add eID="c56-0045__left_margin__d2e9856"/>
                  <mod eID="c56-0045__left_margin__d2e9851"/>
               <add eID="c56-0045__left_margin__d2e9849"/>
            <zone eID="c56-0045__left_margin"/>
         <mod eID="c56-0045__main__d2e9835"/>
         <mod sID="c56-0045__main__d2e9863"/>
            <del rend="strikethrough" sID="c56-0045__main__d2e9865"/>Handsome<del eID="c56-0045__main__d2e9865"/>
            <add hand="#pbs" place="superlinear" sID="c56-0045__main__d2e9868"/>Beautiful<add eID="c56-0045__main__d2e9868"/>
         <mod eID="c56-0045__main__d2e9863"/>; Great God! His <lb n="c56-0045__main__24"/>

added word boundary markup to indicate whole words spanning lines
resequenced margin zone content: (followed S-GA's pointers to represent semantic reading order for collation)

Added new XML: Thomas Copy

Added insertions, deletions, + margin-notes to 1818 edition
checked against and respond to/update Nora Crook and James Reiger editions

Variorum challenge

1. Make visible and accessible a nonlinear, divergent edition history

1816 notebooks to 1818: uneven (gaps in notebooks)
Thomas divergence:
- copy with margin notes was left in Italy before 1823, apparently not consulted later
1823 edits: largely retained in 1831
1831 major revisions:
- alteration of character relationships, added chapter and several lengthened passages

2. Introduce textual scholarship to students, fans of Frankenstein

as well as text scholars, 19c specialists:

Recruit next generation of text scholars
Not marginalizing variants in print model of endnotes/footnotes
Tell the story of Frankenstein’s ”hot” or ”cool” alterations inline

Gothenburg model : algorithm for computer-assisted collation, developed in 2009 workshop of collateX and Juxta developers.

Tokenization :
- Break down the smallest unit of comparison: (words--with punctuation, or character-by-character): FV tokenizes words and includes punctuation
Normalization
- ('&' = 'and')
Alignment
- Identify comparable divergence: what makes text sequences comparable units?
- “Chunking” text into comparable passages (chapters/paragraphs that line up with identifiable start and end points). Collation proceeds chunk by chunk.
Analysis
- (study output, correct, and re-align after machine process, AND refine automated processing)
Visualization
- critical edition apparatus, graph displays

Computer-aided collation: Gothenburg Model

Preparing marked-up texts for collation

Markup of text structure compared across Variorum:
- Volume (print editions only), letter, chapter
- Paragraph, poetry line-groups and lines
- Notes

Markup of manuscript events included in Variorum comparison: deletion, insertion, gap

Normalizing algorithm:
- Decide what marks are equivalent)
- Ignore but preserve other markup in collation process, also abbreviations, capitalization.

”Chunking” algorithm: (limit possibility of major misalignments)
- Locate ”seams” where all editions align
- Divide into ”chunks” at the seams
- Prep each edition as 33 collation ”chunks”, C01 - C33
- Edition files of the same chunk are collated together

 <app xml:id="C10_app44">
          <rdgGrp xml:id="C10_app44_rg1"   
n="['&lt;del&gt;handsome&lt;del&gt;
&lt;del&gt;handsome&lt;
del&gt;beautiful.&lt;del&gt;handsome&lt;del&gt;beautiful;', 'great']" 
         
            <rdg wit="fMS">&lt;lb n="c56-0045__main__23"/&gt;
  &lt;del rend="strikethrough" sID="c56-0045__main__d2e9837"/&gt;
handsome&lt;del eID="c56-0045__main__d2e9837"/&gt;
&lt;mdel&gt;.
&lt;/mdel&gt;&lt;lb n="c56-0045__left_margin__1"/&gt;
&lt;del rend="strikethrough" sID="c56-0045__left_margin__d2e9853"/&gt;handsome&lt;
del eID="c56-0045__left_margin__d2e9853"/&gt;beautiful.
&lt;del rend="strikethrough" sID="c56-0045__main__d2e9865"/&gt;
Handsome&lt;del eID="c56-0045__main__d2e9865"/&gt;
Beautiful; Great </rdg>
       </rdgGrp>

	<rdgGrp xml:id="C10_app44_rg2" n="['beautiful.', 'beautiful!—great']">
	       <rdg wit="f1818">beautiful. Beautiful!—Great </rdg>
	       <rdg wit="f1823">beautiful. Beautiful!—Great </rdg>
	       <rdg wit="fThomas">beautiful. Beautiful!—Great </rdg>
	       <rdg wit="f1831">beautiful. Beautiful!—Great </rdg>
	</rdgGrp>
</app>

Collating with markup

From collation data to spine

“Spine” = data model (dynamic nerve plexus?) holding the variorum together
- standoff use of TEI critical apparatus
  - coordinates data on variance, including normalized tokens and maximum edit-distance values
- points to specific locations in the variorum edition files

How do the five editions “stack up” by collation chunk?

Legend

1818

Thm

1823

1831

gaps, alignments, relative string-length for each ”chunk”

For more on our document data modeling, see

Beshero-Bondar, Elisa E., and Raffaele Viglianti. “Stand-off Bridges in the Frankenstein Variorum Project: Interchange and Interoperability within TEI Markup Ecosystems.” Balisage Series on Markup Technologies, vol. 21 (2018). https://doi.org/10.4242/BalisageVol21.Beshero-Bondar01.

Advanced issues found

▲

”Preparing diversely encoded documents for collation challenges us to consider inconsistent and overlapping hierarchies as a tractable matter for computational alignment—where alignment becomes an organizing principle that fractures hierarchies, chunking if not atomizing them at the level of the smallest meaningfully sharable semantic features.”

”We have negotiated interchangeability by cutting across individual text hierarchies to emphasize lateral connections and commonalities—making a new TEI whose hierarchy serves as a stand-off ”spine” or ”switchboard” permitting comparison and sharing of common data. Our goal of pointing to aligned data required us to locate the interchangeable structural markers in our source documents.”

Live-Wireframing

HTML, CSS, and Bootstrap Javascript Library

Active Prototyping

HTML, CSS, XML rendered using CETEIcean Javascript Library
https://github.com/TEIC/CETEIcean 🐳

Accessibility & Universal Design

7 principles:

Equitable Use,
Flexibility in use,
Simple and Intuitive use,
Perceptible Information,
Tolerance for Error,
Low Physical Effort
Size and Space for Approach and Use.

http://universaldesign.ie/What-is-Universal-Design/The-7-Principles/ .
Rick Godden and Jonathan Hsy. “Universal Design and Its Discontents.” January 6, 2016. 2016 MLA Position Paper as part of Disrupting the Digital Humanities. http://www.disruptingdh.com/universal-design-and-its-discontents/

Considerations

Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973,
the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1991
Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0.

Design Goals

Serve TEI with encoding intact
design for mobile-first: tablets and laptops
this is not a digital facsimile: it does not simulate the manuscript or print experience

Interactive Design:
Agile Humanities Agency

Design Team

Bill Kennedy, Creative Director
Matthew Milner, Developer/Designer
Shaindel Barkats, Front End Developer/UX Designer

Developer Team

Talya Shraga, Front End Developer
Itay Zandbank, Developer and Project Manager

Project Manager and Consultant

Dean Irvine

Accessible Design Elements

Design: Navigation Elements

Version (Source: Edition, Witness)

Section (Pagination: Collation Unit)

Display (Text only, Text with Variants, Variants Only)

Design: Variant Mapping

Variance (Degree: 3-levels, light, med, dark gray)

Dots (color match and clustering)

Design: Variant Signaling

Variance (Degree: 3-levels, light, med, dark gray)

Dots (color match and clustering)

Design: Source Annotations

Additions: ^

Deletions: ~~Strikethrough~~

Google Edit "style"

Future website: http://frankensteinvariorum.org

GitHub organization: https://github.com/PghFrankenstein;

GitHub pages (intro/methods/slides): : https://pghfrankenstein.github.io/Pittsburgh_Frankenstein/

https://pghfrankenstein.github.io/Pittsburgh_Frankenstein/

Conclusion: Future Steps

Annotations
Marginalia
Macroscopic Views
Fine-tuning Edit Distance
User Testing

Macroscopic View

Legend

1818

Thm

1823

1831