Syntysähköiset käsikirjoitukset geneettisen kritiikin tutkimusaineistona

Born-digital manuscripts as research material for genetic criticism

The chapter examines how born-digital manuscripts are studied in genetic criticism. Born-digital manuscripts are texts that have been written, for example, with a word processor installed on a computer or a similar digital device. The research object of genetic criticism is the creative writing process, which is studied in the light of manuscripts. With analogue manuscripts, one can trace the chronology of the writing process by analyzing the visible markings on the page, such as deletions, additions, and substitutions. For several decades, it was assumed that digital writing processes do not leave similar evidence. Recently, however, the application of digital forensic methods and tools to genetic criticism has made it possible to find traces of the writing process, such as metadata, deleted files, and file fragments in the born-digital material. The chapter presents recent research on born-digital manuscripts, the applied digital forensics methods and considers their impact on the concept of the text, especially on what we understand by the materiality of the text.