Wider research context

Barbara Frischmuth is one of Austria’s most important contemporary authors. Her premortem bequest is publicly available at the Franz-Nabl-Institute for Literary Research in Graz, the Austrian National Library and the Adolf Haslinger Literary Foundation, Literature Archive Salzburg. However, the philological research on her work shows considerable gaps both in academic research and in the systematic and annotated documentation of her oeuvre along with its academic and journalistic reception. Moreover, there are no comprehensive digital representations, material collections or analyses that could advance the scholarly examination of her work.

Hypotheses/objectives

The project’s objective is to enable profound and broad scientific research regarding Frischmuth’s oeuvre. This includes the consolidation of the archive holdings, the documentation and comprehensive philological description of both the primary sources and their academic and public reception in a digital environment. Analyses and commentary of the project are carried out along pre-set questions and parameters, such as subjects and themes, genre-specific classifications, relevant cultural, esthetic or sociopolitical references,

tendencies of the reception et cetera. The academic and journalistic reception will be brought into focus both quantitatively and qualitatively. The results of the analysis of reception and primary work will be linked and systematically cross-referenced.

Approach/methods

The main assignments will revolve around the collection, its digital archiving, and the theory- and method-led analysis and explanation of the materials. The digital workflow provides for an online repository with an intuitive and data driven interface. The entire indexing is based on proven methods of digital humanities in order to collect the manifold information about Frischmuth’s work in a structured and standards-compliant manner. Both the workflow of data acquisition, analysis and representation are developed together with the Austrian Centre for Digital Humanities, Vienna.

Level of originality/innovation

Located at the interface of archive and German studies this project and its multi-perspective approach not only makes a significant contribution to the academic research of Frischmuth’s oeuvre, it also establishes an exemplary, innovative and original open access system for collecting, structuring and indexing literary texts and their reception. Furthermore, the project provides a substantive basis for possible follow-up projects such as the digitalization of the material or edition philology endeavors and gives central impulses both for specialists and a general public.