Description of the NEWW Women Writers VRE
- History
First steps for preparing this tool were made at the end of the 1990s.
Designated then as the “Database WomenWriters” it was created in order to allow, for pre-1900 Europe, the study of women’s writing in their international reception context. Such a study was not possible given the evident lack of large-scale information about women's writing being received by contemporaries. Large scale and transcending of boundaries was considered a necessity because of women's frequent role as translators, and also because of women's reputations abroad not always being recognized in the home country.
The initiative was taken within the context of my research and teaching about French 18th and 19th-century women’s writing, as received in the Netherlands (Huizinga Institute and French department of University of Amsterdam). A number of colleagues of the “Werkverband Genderstudies Neerlandistiek Literatuur-geschiedschrijving (see also here) participated in the preliminary discussions which were also reflected in the volume “I have heard about you”. Foreign women’s writing crossing the Dutch border: from Sappho to Selma Lagerlöf (edited by Suzan van Dijk, Petra Broomans, Janet F. van der Meulen and Pim van Oostrum. Hilversum: Verloren, 2004).
Starting 2001, the database was included in the Roquade project of the Utrecht University Library, and further developed under the direction of Ben Brandenburg. Thanks to different NWO grants (digitizing and “internationalizing” projects), data were entered by assistants, and an international network started being created, whose members used the database for their research. It was elected for the "International Innovation Award 2005" on the occasion of the XVIth International Conference of the Association for History and Computing (Amsterdam).
In 2009 we were granted a COST Action (IS0901 Women Writers in History), and the headquarters moved to Huygens Institute (KNAW) in The Hague. The meetings and training schools organized in the COST context were extremely useful for defining common approaches, and discussing research. They resulted in features listed as requirements for the tool. In part these could be realized by the Institute’s IT department, thanks to the HERA Project Travelling TexTs 1790-1914. The Transnational Reception of Women’s Writing at the Fringes of Europe (2013–2016). This project involved colleagues from five countries, but maintained the collaboration with colleagues of some 15 other countries. These are now, together, the DARIAH Working Group Women Writers in History.
- Content description
The NEWW VRE contains information on the production of women authors from the Middle Ages up to the early 20th century, and on the reception of their works by contemporaries as well as early literary historians (both men and women). It comprises women who were active as authors, in the sense that they published their writings, either through publishing houses or in the periodical press.
The structure of the VRE connects between authors and between publications: it can show both Jane Austen (for instance) influencing Isabelle de Montolieu, and Sense and Sensibility being translated into Raison et Sensibilité. Data are entered when any proof of reception is found: in other words, when it becomes clear through comments in press, private letters, translations, adaptations etc. that a woman writer and/or her works were received and read. Though the main focus lies on European women authors, the VRE also includes information on works and reception created in European colonies, Canada and the United States, due to the mutual cultural exchanges between these regions and Europe.
The data in the VRE are information data (metadata in fact): short biographical data and categorization of the authors; titles and other bibliographical information, as well as categorization of the publications (both primary works and reception documents). If available, records for authors and publications refer through hyperlinks to relevant online information and digitized texts.
- The Dutch part available at DANS
As work on this tool started in the Netherlands and had the benefit of initial NWO funding, the amount of data for this country is more considerable than for the other countries. This is why we considered important to archive this bulk of information at DANS in EASY.
The three “layers” contain at this moment:
1. 850 Dutch female authors (from Hadewych to Anne Frank, who through Cissy van Marxveldt was linked to Nellie van Kol), as well as 370 male authors, who were related to the women, receivers of the women’s writings (critics, journalists, anthologizers, etc.) or inspired their writing activities (from Erasmus to Heinz Polzer, grandson of Nellie van Kol)
2. 3700 publications by these women;
3. and:
• 2800 reception documents (of the women’s works)
• 2000 reception documents (concerning the authors)
The very most of this could be curated thanks to the KDP. Final check for the remaining part will be done during the next weeks.
On this occasion we like to thank our Dutch assistants, during different phases of the collaboration: Martine Brunot and Emmanuelle Radar (at the time students at the French Department UvA), Lotte Jensen and Alicia Montoya (then PhD-candidates UvA), Susanne Parren, Johanneke Straasheijm, Els Naaijkens (at OGC UU), Anne van Buul, Janouk de Groot, Astrid Kulsdom (Huygens ING).
We were also importantly helped by students collaborating as trainees.
Suzan van Dijk, 11-11-2018
