Making Accessible Oeuvres by Classical Swedish Authors in Scholarly Editions
he project of the Swedish Society for Belles-Lettres (Svenska Vitterhetssamfundet) aims at continuing the scholarly editions of classical Swedish authors, which started in 1910 and now comprise over 300 volumes. The purpose is also to make the texts accessible to the Swedish public through the Literature Bank (Litteraturbanken) and the Swedish Language Bank (Språkbanken). A couple of editions in progress will be continued: C.G. af Leopold’s collected works with a commentary to Teaterstycken (Theatre) as well as Om svenska språket (About the Swedish language) and with Haquin Spegel’s collected works a commentary to Världsliga dikter (Worldly Poems). Added to this the Society will edit Dramatik (Drama) and Svenska Friheten (The Swedish Freedom) by Olof von Dalin. All these authors were active mainly during the 17th and 18th centuries and are edited in the series “Svenska författare” (“Swedish Authors”). Oeuvres from the 19th century are also part of the project: Fredrika Bremer’s novel En dagbok (A Diary), edited in “Svenska författare, Ny serie” (“Swedish authors. New Series”) and six volumes in the series “C.J.L. Almqvists Samlade Verk” (“C.J.L. Almqvist’s Collected Works”) so far comprising 19 volymes of the approximately 50 planned. The editions, in themselves the result of research on different fields, aim to offer a reliable basis for textual and linguistic analysis. They will contain an introduction of the oeuvre, a critical apparatus and a commentary. About fifteen editors will be involved in the editions. Recently published revised instructions have been formulated concerning the choice of copy-text, the establishment of texts, the creation of lists of variants, the description of manuscripts and prints as well as the making of glossaries.
Final report
The aim of the project and changes of the aim during the project period
Since 1910 The Swedish Society for Belles Lettres publishes works by Swedish classic authors in scholarly editions. This activity is fundamental for various fields of research, mainly for subjects like language and litterature. The editions, being the result of all kinds of research, aim to present a basis for textual interpretation and linquistic analysis. The aim of the project is to continue to produce scholarly editions of Swedish classics as printed books, but also to make the texts available online for readers in general and for scholars in Sweden and abroad through open access at the Swedish Literature Bank. The editions contain texts established and chosen on critical basis, an introduction to each work, a critical apparatus and explanatory notes. The editions are not only used by scholars in the fields of language and literature, but also by students in colleges and universities.
All the editions have been published as we planned, except for Collected Works by C.J.L. Almqvist vol. 2, Tryckta ungdomsverk, ed. by Paula Henrikson. Spegel III:2, Leopold I:3,2, Almqvist SV 22 och SV III:2 are now available at the Swedish Literature Bank, and the rest of the editions within the project will be open for access in the near future.
The printed books have been distributed to the members of the Society for Belles Lettres. They are also presented at the Swedish Book Fair in Gotheburg – as usual when new books have been published during the past year. Our books are of course available in bookstores.
The results of the project and a discussion about the results
Apart from the fact that scholarly editions of older Swedish literature have been available to researchers , students an other readers, they also present new bodies of information as a basis for research. In several of the scholarly editions important texts, commentaries and results are introduced. In Torkel Stålmarck’s commentary on Theatre by Leopold an earlier not printed version of the tragedy Oden (act 1–3) was presented to the King Gustaf III at Christmas in 1778. Of special interest are the variants. They offer a possibility to study the author’s work in progress.
Bernt Olsson organizes the big amount of manuscripts in his commentary on Spegel’s Profane Poems, and makes the poems accessible by his explanatory notes. The most frequent words are listed in a separate index useful also for other studies of texts from the 17th century.
Maria Wahlström could make immediate use of her work editing Fredrika Bremer’s A Diary, as the novel is one of the subjects in her study of Swedish fictional diaries, which is also the topic of her dissertation in 2012 at the Department of Literature at Stockholm University.
Johan Svedjedal, the author of a voluminous biography on Almqvist (2007–2009), has of course been able to use his knowledge in Almqvist’s works achieved by editing two versions of the novel It Can be Done and beeing the chief editor of Almqvist’s Collected Works.
Alongside with the editing of Almqvist’s On Swedish Rhymes Per Mårtenson was also occupied with his dissertation about Almqvist’s style during the author’s exile. Mårtenson’s dissertation was published in 2005 at Stockholm University.
The production of a scholarly edition has positive effects on research. The edition itself offers results of research, the bodies of information makes it possible for the editor to develop new angles of research, and in the future it is meant to serve as a starting point for research by other scholars.
Unforeseen technical and methological problems
The methological problems are solved by further education of the editors, such as frequent consulting of the guidelines by Paula Henrikson (published 2007), and keeping up to date with new research on scholarly editing. A recommendable way to get hold of resent research is to participate in the conferences arranged every second year by the Nordic Network for Textual Critics. The conference is this year in Oslo and the theme is ”Censorship and scholarly editions”. The papers given at the conference are generally published in a collection, later used as a manual for editors.
One technical problem is the fact that software has to be upgraded or replaced (which takes a lot of time and effort), when the progress of the work with our editions is too slow.
To calculate how long time is needed for producing a scholarly edition is a challenge. Earlier unknown manuscripts may turn up. Many editors work parttime with scholarly editing and parttime with other projects. There is a risk that more time is spent on the latter. For that reason we are most grateful for the permission we got a couple of times to prolong the time range of editing projekt.
Integration of the project in the organisation/authority
Since scholarly editing is the aim of the Swedish Society for Belles Lettres the project is very much integrated in our organisation. Series that have been initiated will continue in the future, such as Collected Works by Olof von Dalin. Next is an edition of his letters. Four more volumes of Almqvist’s On Swedish Rhymes are to be expected. The nearly completed volume, containing Almqvist’s works printed in his earier days, will be published next year. About to be published the following years are the novel Hertha by Fredrika Bremer, commentaries on Adolph Törneros’ Letter and diaries, on Haquin Spegel’s Poems from Paradise and a facsimile edition of Phosphoros, a literary magazine with contributions from the romantic poets. Plans in detail exist for the following three years.
New research issues generated by the project
We are happy to report that the editions already have generated several papers. Results from Lillemor Santesson’s work with the edition of On the Swedish lanquage by Leopold have been published in two papers in 2003. Petra Söderlund has also been able to publish pappers based on her editing of Almqvist’s Karmola. No less than two papers, and two lectures, one at a conference 2011 and one more to come in a workshop discussing generative critics in Uppsala later this year. The papers are listed below.
Furthermore Ingemar Carlsson’s and James Massengale’s edition of Olof von Dalin’s Dramatic Works has been a basis for further research. One paper by Barbro Ståhle Sjönell focuses on changes in the Swedish pronoun I/Ni observed in a comedy. James Massengale, who has provided the musical comments on the songs in some of the plays, has in his work with the volumes containing poetry, due earliest next year, made important discoveries in European archives on melodies used by Dalin that might change the image of the poet. Massengale has also presented papers on the already published volumes of the Collected Works (see the index of published papers below).
Mediation of the project results
In 2006 The Swedish Society of Belles Lettres signed a contract with The Swedish Literature Bank, a non profit cultural and litterary resource for research and education, with the aim to permit the digital bank to publish all volumes edited by the Society on their website (www.litteraturbanken.se) with open access. All editions by The Swedish Society for Belles Lettres are now availible at this address, and there is also a link to ”litteraturbanken” from our website (www.svenskavitterhetssamfundet.se).