The current issue of Digital Humanities Quarterly (v. 9, no. 1) includes an article by Tomas Zahora, Constant J. Mews, David Squire (Monash University), and Dmitri Nikulin (Google) entitled “Deconstructing Bricolage: Interactive Online Analysis of Compiled Texts with Factotum.” From the abstract:
Textual bricolage, the unacknowledged re-use of chunks of existing texts within a new composition, spans the liminal space between authorized, publicly shared, and de-authorized texts. While it can result in unique literary juxtapositions, bricolage also challenges the boundaries of authorial ownership. Understanding the methods and responses to textual bricolage reflects how a culture engages with textuality. Yet such study is often hindered by the sheer extent of compared texts. In this article we explore the potential of using Factotum, text similarity recognition software with visual interface, for analysing textual bricolage. Using examples from medieval and recent texts, we discuss different compilation techniques as well as the interaction between the notions of authorship, plagiarism and intertextuality.
