Project

Discipline

Elizabethan; intertextuality; open linked data; digital humanities; semantic web; Early Modern Period; english drama

Lead
WordWeb - eine digitale Repräsentation der Intertextualität im Drama von Shakespeares Zeit
Lay summary
WordWeb/IDEM entwickelt eine innovative digitale Datenbank zur Darstellung der Intertextualität im Drama der Shakespeare-Zeit. Wir werden eine digitale Darstellung auf der Grundlage von Sematic Web-Technologien aufbauen, um einen umfassenden Korpus an gegenseitigen Zitaten innerhalb der Texte dieser Zeit darzustellen. Um dies zu erreichen, wird ein Software-Framework entwickelt, das komplexe intertextuelle Beziehungen in verschiedenen kulturellen Bereich modellieren kann. Damit werden rund 200 Jahre bestehender Forschung repräsentiert werden. Dies wird zu einem beispiellosen Überblick über die Intertextualität im Drama der Frühen Neuzeit führen. Zudem kann damit Shakespeares Beitrag zum gesamten "Web of words" seiner Zeit geklärt werden. WordWeb wird eine neues Paradigma zur Darstelling von Intertextualität realisieren. Anstelle von vollständigen Texten speichert WordWeb/IDEM nur intertextuell aktive Passagen, d.h. Phrasen, die in mehr als einem Text identifiziert wurden. Diese Gegenstände werden nicht als von einem berühmten Meisterwerk stammend angesehen. Stattdessen handelt es sich um viel zitierte Phrasen, die zum Beispiel zufällig auch in Hamlet vorkommen. Der Name "WordWeb" leitet diesen neuen Fokus ein: Kurze verbale Elemente ("Words") sind durch reichhaltige Links mit bibliographischen Informationen und anderen Anmerkungen ("Web") miteinander verbunden. Als neue Methodik kann WordWeb eingesetzt werden, um die Suche und das Verständnis komplexer Zusammenhänge in vielen kulturellen Bereichen zu verbessern.

Direct link to Lay Summary

Last update: 11.10.2018

Lead
WordWeb - a digital representation of intertextuality in the drama of Shakespeare's time
Lay summary
WordWeb/IDEM proposes an innovative digital database for representing intertextuality  in the drama of Shakespeare's time. We will build a digital representation based on Sematic Web technolopgies to display a comprehensive corpus of mutual quotations within the texts of this time. In order to achieve this develop and implement WordWeb, a software framework which can model complex intertextual relationships in any cultural domain. we will harness 200 years of research for an unprecedented overview of Intertextuality in Dra- ma of the Early Modern Period (IDEM). we will clarify Shakespeare's contribution to the overall "web of words" of his time. WordWeb will renew our vision of intertextuality through a ground-breaking new paradigm for representing what is conventionally called "quotation". Instead of complete texts, WordWeb/IDEM will store only intertextually active passages, i.e. phrases which have been identified in more than one text. These items are not seen as deriving from a famous masterpiece. Instead, they represent much- quoted phrases which just happen to occur also in Hamlet, for example. The name "WordWeb" indi cates this new focus: short verbal items ("Word") are connected to each other by rich links that carry bibliographical information and other annotations ("Web"). As a new methodology, WordWeb can be applied to advance re- search and understanding of complex relationships in many cultural domains.

Direct link to Lay Summary

Last update: 11.10.2018

Active participation

Communication	Title	Media	Place	Year

Number	Title	Start	Funding scheme

WordWeb/IDEM proposes an innovative flexible structure for representing intertextuality to display a comprehensive corpus of mutual quotations in the drama of Shakespeare's time. Within the relational paradigm of traditional databases, it has been extremely challenging to map complex intertextual references. Thanks to new information technologies, we can offer a generic digital framework for representing interrelated information which overcomes these limitations. The collaborative and competitive canon of the London theatre scene around 1600 will serve as a "real world" example of relations between multiple texts.WordWeb/IDEM's main objectives will significantly advance Digital Humanities and the study of early modern literature. (1) To develop and implement WordWeb, a software framework which can model complex intertextual relationships in any cultural domain. (2) To harness 200 years of research for an unprecedented overview of Intertextuality in Drama of the Early Modern Period (IDEM).(3) To clarify Shakespeare's contribution to the overall "web of words" of his time.The project builds on experience gained from the HyperHamlet database (SNF Project Passages We Live By 2006-2010), a hypertext of Shakespeare's tragedy in which each line gives access to texts in which that line is quoted. In contrast, WordWeb/IDEM will make cross-references between the works of dozens of dramatists visible as an extended verbal and social network. WordWeb can renew our vision of intertextuality through a ground-breaking new paradigm for representing what is conventionally called "quotation". Instead of complete texts, Word-Web/IDEM will store only intertextually active passages, i.e. phrases which have been identified in more than one text. These items are not seen as deriving from a famous masterpiece. Instead, they represent much-quoted phrases which just happen to occur also in Hamlet, for example. The name "WordWeb" indicates this new focus: short verbal items ("Word") are connected to each other by rich links that carry bibliographical information and other annotations ("Web"). By storing only shared passages, WordWeb/IDEM will have room for an open number of texts that quote and are quoted and so present an extensive overview of the verbal network of Renais-sance drama. Such a coherent view is urgently needed. Thousands of references between Elizabe-than and Jacobean plays are lost from view because they are reported in hard-to-access footnotes, indexes and detailed studies. WordWeb/IDEM will make this extremely valuable, extremely specific data accessible and set them in context. A digital "semantic web" with sophisticated options for visualization will relate older, philological research to recent digital investigations and set Shakespeare's works in the context of his contemporaries. As a result, connections and influences will emerge that have remained invisible because of fragmented research. IDEM's multidimensional map of the dense tissue of verbal "memes" in early modern drama will revolutionize our under-standing of one of the most significant bodies of English literature. As a new methodology, WordWeb can be applied to advance research and understanding of complex relationships in many cultural domains.