Sterne Digital Library

我们对文学史的看法通常是由我们对“重要”书籍的看法以及作者的看法所决定的。尽管学者们试图通过主张“次要”作品的地位来挑战“正典”的想法——例如，那些由边缘群体创作的作品，或者那些没有对我们认为是“好”文学做出重大主张的作品——这些恢复经常被定位在所谓的正典作品的对立面。通过考虑通过动态的改编过程实现的表面上“重要”和“次要”作品之间的共生关系，可以更揭示过去文学文化是如何蓬勃发展的。创造性地将流行文本转化为新的形式、媒介和模式（视觉、表演、物质文化），以刺激新的方式激活边缘和中心之间的内在联系和差异。文学改编的过程是根深蒂固的，有许多重要的文学例子，从菲利普·西德尼到J.K.罗琳。然而，18世纪的读者在新兴的名人文化和迅速扩张的图书贸易的背景下，热情地将文本重新塑造成不同的艺术形式。这一时期的流行作品与它们所激发的改编有着生动的、相互的关系。文本以新的形式成为公共消费和反刍的物质，因为读者通过制作自己版本的名著而成为创作者。劳伦斯·斯特恩（1713-68）是当时最受欢迎、最成功的作家之一。他独特的小说《绅士崔斯特拉姆·尚迪的生活和观点》（1759-67）和《法国和意大利的感情之旅》（1768）大获成功，并激发了一系列“斯特内亚纳”（Sterneana）：在文字、图像和表演方面的创造性回应。虽然这一时期的其他流行文本激发了创造力，但没有一个像斯特恩的作品那样经历了如此丰富多样的改编。斯特恩的第一批读者发现，他的小说在任何意义上都是惊人的“小说”，从《崔斯特拉姆·珊迪》（Tristram Shandy）古怪的故事讲述、俏皮的排版和淫秽的文字，到《感伤之旅》（A Sentimental Journey）暧昧的情色幽默和感人的感伤的混合。两部小说在国内外都产生了续集、模仿、延续、歌曲、戏剧以及视觉和物质文化；例如，约里克（Yoryck）的《法国感伤表》（Tableau Sentimental de la France, 1792）就用斯特恩笔下富有同情心的旅行者来批判大革命后的法国。斯特恩继续让读者着迷：他的书从未绝版；他的家尚迪庄园（Shandy Hall）的访客络绎不绝；艺术家、作家和音乐家仍然对他独特的作品做出自己的创造性诠释。叙事的实验性视觉再现是由斯特恩开创的，并在斯特奈纳中广泛存在。SDL将是第一个尝试数字编码视觉叙事的数字资源，如雕刻线条、空白和非语言排版标记。这个项目的主要目的是用“Sterneana”作为一个案例来研究18世纪改编的动态文化。它的目标是创建斯特恩数字图书馆，将斯特恩的小说与迄今为止不太知名、被边缘化的斯特恩小说结合起来，使用户可以在它们之间进行搜索，确定它们的协同作用，并探索来世对文学文化的更广泛影响。它将由世界领先的学者编写的解释性文本阐明，这些文本介绍，阐明并鼓励探索它的新路线。在剑桥数字图书馆这个开放访问平台上，它将为新观众带来剑桥大学图书馆（CUL）和劳伦斯·斯特恩信托基金会（LST）在数量和范围上无与伦比的宝藏。

How we think about literary history has typically been shaped by what we think the 'important' books are, and who wrote them. Although scholars have sought to challenge ideas of canonicity by asserting the place of 'lesser' works - those produced by marginal groups, for instance, or which do not make significant claims on what we deem to be 'good' literature - these recuperations have often been positioned in opposition to so-called canonical works. A more revealing approach to how literary cultures have flourished in the past can be shaped by considering the symbiotic relations between apparently 'important' and 'lesser' works as realised through the dynamic processes of adaptation. Creatively recycling a popular text into new forms, media and modes (the visual, performance, material culture) invigorates the inherent connections and differences between the marginal and the central in stimulating new ways. The processes of literary adaptation are deep-rooted and hold many significant literary examples, from Philip Sidney to J.K. Rowling. Yet eighteenth-century readers exuberantly refashioned texts into alternative artistic forms against the back-drop of an emergent celebrity culture and a rapidly expanding book trade. Popular works in this period enjoyed a lively, reciprocal relationship with the adaptations they inspired. Texts became substance for public consumption and regurgitation in new forms, as readers turned creators by producing their own versions of famous works. Laurence Sterne (1713-68) was one of the most popular and successful writers of his day. His idiosyncratic novels, 'The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman' (1759-67) and 'A Sentimental Journey through France and Italy' (1768), were wildly successful and inspired a host of 'Sterneana': creative responses in word, image, and performance. Whilst other popular texts from this period inspired creativity, none experienced adaptation as prolific or diverse as Sterne's. Sterne's first readers found his fiction to be strikingly 'novel' in every sense, from 'Tristram Shandy's' erratic story-telling, playful typography, and bawdry, to 'A Sentimental Journey's' ambiguous mixture of erotic humour and touching pathos. Both novels generated sequels, imitations, continuations, song, drama, and visual and material culture at home and abroad; 'Tableau Sentimental de la France' by 'Yoryck' (1792), for instance, uses Sterne's sympathetic traveller to critique post-Revolutionary France. Sterne continues to fascinate readers: his books have never gone out of print; there is a steady flow of visitors to his home, Shandy Hall; artists, writers, and musicians still produce their own creative interpretations of his idiosyncratic works. Experimental visual representation of narrative was pioneered by Sterne and abounds in Sterneana. The SDL will be the first digital resource to experiment with digitally encoding visual narrative like engraved lines, white space and non-verbal typographic marks. The main aim of this project is to use 'Sterneana' as a case study for examining the dynamic culture of eighteenth-century adaptation. Its objectives are to create the Sterne Digital Library, a digital resource combining Sterne's fiction with lesser-known and hitherto marginalised Sterneana, allowing users to search across them and identify their synergies and explore the wider implications afterlives hold in literary culture. It will be illuminated by explanatory texts compiled by world-leading scholars which introduce, elucidate, and encourage new routes towards exploring it. Hosted on Cambridge Digital Library, an open-access platform, it will bring new audiences to treasures of Cambridge University Library (CUL) and the Laurence Sterne Trust at Shandy Hall (LST) that are unmatched in number or scope.