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‘Behind the computer screens’. The use of keystroke logging for genetic criticism applied to born-digital works of literature | 6 October 2023, Aula, 11.00 hrs. Supervisors: Karina van Dalen-Oskam, Dirk van Hulle; Mariëlle Leijten
Event details of Dissertation Defense: Lamyk Bekius
Date
6 October 2023
Time
11:00

The digital environment in which present-day literature is composed changes the materiality of the sources available for genetic criticism significantly, since common word processors tend to hide the writing operations: additions are visualised on our screen as inline text production, and deleted text ‘disappears’ from the screen. This makes it a difficult endeavour to reconstruct the writing process, but does it herald the feared end of genetic criticism? Behind the computer screens argues that this will not be the case as long as genetic criticism adapts to working with digital files. As one of the ways in which genetic criticism can adapt to the Digital Age, the study examines the use of one method in particular: keystroke logging. To explore the possibilities of keystroke logging, it analyses the writing processes of Gie Bogaert, Jente Posthuma, Roos van Rijswijk, David Troch, and Ellen Van Pelt. By examining this keystroke logging data, we can study the writing process at an unprecedented level of granularity, including the sequentiality of text production and revision, which allows for a new type of what this study calls ‘nanogenetic’ research.