Digital Explanatory Annotations for Literary Texts: Possibilities - Practices - Problems - Prospects (revised version of the original 2017)

Abstract

This pdf (published in January 2021) is a slightly revised version of the original 2017 document. Some of the links included in the 2017 document have been updated. The content of this thesis has remained the same.

Please refer to the present pdf when citing this thesis.

The original 2017 version can be found here: http://hdl.handle.net/10900/80731

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This thesis is concerned with digital explanatory annotations that are meant to help readers understand, interpret, and enjoy literary texts. The first chapter outlines the advantages of digital over printed annotations. The second chapter evaluates the annotations in eleven digital editions. The focus lies on their extent and systematization, their layout, their use of links and multimedia elements, their citeability, and on whether they were created collaboratively or not. The third chapter is concerned with TEASys – a system developed at the university of Tübingen which helps annotators structure their explanations with regards to length/depth and content. This system allows readers to choose which parts of an annotation they want to read for their individual interests and research purposes. The fourth chapter discusses the results of a survey concerned with students’ attitudes towards digital reading and digital annotations. The last chapter outlines three challenges that digital annotations are still facing: (1) readers’ preference for printed texts (2) the questions how the academic quality of collaboratively written annotations can be guaranteed, and (3) the question how digital annotations that are constantly being revised can be archived.

This version of the MA thesis contains minor revisions (e.g. corrections of misspellings and line breaks).