Lisbeth Larsson, Litteraturvetenskapliga institutionen, Göteborgs universitet

2009-2011

The purpose of the project was to make a Swedish, Danish and English edition of Nordisk kvinnolitteraturhistoria I-IV (The History of Nordic Women's Literature, Volumes I-IV) (1993-1997) available online. In addition to greater international accessibility, online publication permits various kinds of searches for relevant and supplementary material, as well as continual updates of scholarship in the field.

The History of Nordic Women's Literature consists of four historical volumes. The historiography begins in Iceland with the transition from the oral to written narrative tradition. It concludes with a chapter about Sami and Greenland women who master written language in the present era. Within this circle - which demonstrates the lack of synchronicity in women's condition - a largely chronological history traces literature by women in Sweden, Norway, Denmark Finland, the Faeroe Islands and Iceland for more than a thousand years. Furnishing the digitised text with tags and terms permits systematic searches within each language version. The terms include the writer discussed, the author of the article, the region and a large number of subject headings. There are also references to secondary literature, external links to searches on authors in the individual national biographies and free digitised works. The copious illustrative material can be read as a parallel description of Nordic women's cultural history over the past 1,000 years.

The digitised text contains extensive illustrations from the printed works.
As opposed to most compilations of literary history, The History of Nordic Women's Literature is based primarily on new and ground-breaking research. One purpose of the project was to make the material available for badly needed on-going research in the field. The original plans for the project did not include digitisation of the fifth volume of The History of Nordic Women's Literature, which was published in 2000 and contains biographical and bibliographical information. During the course of the project, however, the importance of both digitising the volume and updating it to include research over the past decade became eminently clear.

Project's results and related discussion

The History of Nordic Women's Literature is the product of almost two decades of close collaboration among first-generation researchers in the field throughout the Nordic area. Launched in the early 1980s, the project evolved through individual research and annual seminars attended by more than one hundred scholars from various Nordic universities. The History of Nordic Women's Literature was a unique international achievement. It attracted attention around the world, and a number of the participants were invited to American universities as researchers and visiting lecturers. Only during the past decade have similar projects started to emerge in the United States and the rest of Europe.

A key benefit of the English translations and their digitisation is that Nordic research will be available for use by the on-going historiography of European and American literature by women. They also pass on unique research findings to new generations of students and scholars and provide a basis for launching additional research projects both in and outside the Nordic countries.

The ability of the digitised version to both preserve and deviate from the chronological presentation inherent to the printed material constitutes a major contribution to future research. All historiography is a narrative shaped by the period in which it is written. Largely a product of the first generation of researchers in the field, The History of Nordic Women's Literature is a unique document of that generation. The digitised version, however, departs from the chronological narrative and is broken down into components of various sizes. Its searchability in different directions over time, as well as among individual writers and subjects, enhances its value as historical research and serves as a source for new efforts along similar lines. The digitised version of The History of Nordic Women's Literature is an almost inexhaustible source of information and a major tool for future research. Individual and combined searches allow users to identify facts and relationships that had previously been unknown or unrecognised. The History of Nordic Women's Literature Online will be a major asset not only for on-going research but for education at all levels and for the general public.

Unforeseen technical or methodical problems

The project was innovative by nature and new priorities emerged as it was being carried out. For example, interviews with users and the various tests that were performed revealed a need for access to biographical and bibliographical material, as well as updated information about research and the writings of the various authors. Plans for the project expanded accordingly.
The problems that arose were largely technical in nature, primarily coding issues associated with scanning text and exporting it to various databases. Thus, development of the backend system for editing the material was delayed.

Integration of the project with the agency/organisation and how it will be passed on

Even in book form, The History of Nordic Women's Literature has become an integral component of instruction at universities and elsewhere by virtue of its unique material. It has also stimulated, and provided a firm foundation for, on-going research. The digitised version will reach a brand new audience in Sweden, Denmark and around the world. The portal containing the three different language versions will be accessible from the website of the Women's History Collections at the University of Gothenburg (www.nordiskkvinnolitteratur.se), the Danish Center for Information on Women and Gender (www.nordiskkvindelitteratur.dk), www.nordicwomensliterature.net, and the Swedish Literature Bank www.litteraturbanken.se - though not searchable or illustrated in the latter case.

New research issues generated by the project

The process of digitising and updating the fifth volume of The History of Nordic Women's Literature revealed the continued paucity of research in the field despite progress over the past few decades. More extensive, in-depth understanding is sorely needed. Research findings must be updated on the basis of new discoveries and insights. Historiography of the period up to the present remains incomplete. A Danish initiative entitled "Nordens kvindelige forfattere 1990-2010" (Nordic Women Writers 1999-2010) is an immediate sequel to this project.

The project has also demonstrated that digitisation of research is an enormously valuable tool for on-going efforts in the same and related fields. The History of Nordic Women's Literature Online creates fresh possibilities and will hopefully set a new standard for disseminating the findings of Nordic research. The database design will serve as a prototype for compilation of Svenskt Kvinnobiografiskt Lexikon (Biographical Dictionary of Swedish Women), which is under way at the Women's History Collections at the University of Gothenburg.

Dissemination of the project's findings

The History of Nordic Women's Literature in English, Swedish and Danish is searchable at www.kvinfo.dk and www.ub.gu.se/samlingar/kvinn. Swedish and English text versions are available at www.litteraturbanken.se. The articles themselves contain links to other sites that offer information and texts of their own. Google Searches also point the user to these web sites.

The management team consisting of Lisbeth Larsson, Anne Marie Mai, Elisabeth Møller-Jensen, Jytte Nielsen and Ebba Witt-Brattström, as well as the editors - Anette Dina Sørensen, Berith Backlund, Julie Breingaaard and Martin Lamberth - held a number of project-related lectures both in their own countries and abroad.

The 8 March 2012 project launch at the Women's Collections at the University of Gothenburg, the Royal Library in Copenhagen and the Swedish Embassy in Berlin will be accompanied by lectures, exhibitions and readings by authors. The project will have booths, lectures and readings at the Gothenburg Book Fair in autumn 2012. A broader-based international launch is being planned in collaboration with the Department of Scandinavian, University of California, Berkeley.