| Beyond the demands humans make of technology as they invent it, technology has of course repeatedly proved to be a shaping force of its own. 'Electronic Text and the Gutenberg Heritage' is the working title of a book project that examines how the increasing adoption of digital media for many types of textual transmission that were hitherto the exclusive domain of print affects the nature and content of textual communication in a variety of ways, both intended and unintended. For digital textual transmission is no exception to the rule that the nature of the technology used for textual communication is a determining factor in the position of texts (especially books) in society, and has a major impact on their content. Carried out in a book historical context, a thorough examination of the technological intentions in digital textual communication can also be sensitive to unintended consequences of the need to harness the power of the digital computer. Despite the fact that in the transition from printed to digital textual transmission the continuities far outweigh any discontinuities, the chasm that divides the two in today's scholarly world could hardly be wider. 'Electronic Text and the Gutenberg Heritage' argues that it is necessary to bridge that gap, to improve our understanding of the nature and implications of digital textual transmission, but also, vice versa, to enable new insights in the nature of earlier, similar revolutions in textual transmission. Keywords: digital textual transmission; typographic heritage. |
