Critical Edition in Print and Digital Format: Versions of D. H. Lawrence’s Studies in Classic American Literature, and Their Possible Remediation in the Digital Medium

In this paper, I examine the textual history and its literary implications in the production of D. H. Lawrence’s Studies in Classic American Literature, as well as the significant changes in the foundational concepts of textual studies and the resulting contradictions at play in the transition from print to digital editions. I argue that the most fundamental issue at stake in the production of critical editions, whether print or digital, is the recognition that literary reading and textual reading are interdependent. After demonstrating the limitations of an understanding predicated on the binary of textual and literary reading, I explore the possible remediation of critical editions in digital form, arguing that combining the demands for precision of both textual and literary criticism is now more than ever a necessity as digitization becomes irreversible. By paying attention to the dynamics created by complex interdependence between literary and textual reading, the following discussion argues for a central role for literary reading in the construction of digital critical editions, while highlighting the inherent limitations of digital technology in this regard. The conclusion emphasizes the active engagement of humanities scholars in the digitization of knowledge, and the critical role that the politics of textual studies can play and fail to play.