Contemplating the Sources of Literary Scholarship for the Future: Synthesizing Scholarly Editing and Archival Science

Abstract

What is the foundation of the literary studies? Is it a book, or a text? This question has come to take on great significance in the sphere of literary studies in light of the rapid process of the digitization of books. The field of scholarly editing, which has been facing this question over the last several years, is falling into a serious dilemma concerning the “representation”of the material characteristics of books. This dilemma will gradually transform the field of scholarly editing into a new field, which can be called Archival Science. In this essay, while contemplating in depth the concept of the so-called“original,” which is considered to be the most important research material in the Humanities, I will discuss the future direction of scholarly trends pertaining to literary studies.