Digital Strategies for the Decanonization of Textual Heritage

The heritagisation of texts is commonly performed by means of canonisation. Works are selected in order to establish a canon of texts representing some specific cultural context; canonical text versions are established in scholarly editions by applying literary and textual criticism. In contrast, digital heritagisation of texts can be performed by means of de-canonisation. Digital corpora of texts can be created without the necessity of prior exclusion of individual works or versions. Instead, even neglected and supposedly less important works can be included, and the plurality of textual versions and layers can be represented from various perspectives. As a consequence, tools and strategies need to be developed that enable readers to engage in meaningful ways with an increasing amount of textual heritage data. While in the past we had to focus on an authoritative selection of canonical texts and documents that are one-dimensional and single-layered, today scholars and common readers are able to engage with textual heritage in all its dimensions as complex, diverse, multi-layered, multi-dimensional artifacts, critically represented in digital scholarly editions and large digital corpora that are more open, easier to share and connect. This article illustrates some theoretical implications of the concept of textual heritage and provide an overview of methods and formats developed in digital scholarship for preserving, analysing and making accessible literary text and historical documents in order to discuss digital strategies for the decanonisation of textual heritage.