MIHÁLY BABITS AND THE TYPEWRITER – IN THE CONTEXT OF THE MEDIOLOGY OF LITERATURE

Abstract

Textology is fundamentally a practice-oriented activity. Yet, examples from Hungary and the world show that researchers involved in scholarly text editing have to face the challenges of dominant theories in literary studies from time to time. On the basis of practical experiences in critical editing of Babits’s poems, I examine in the following the impact the typewriter had on the creation of poems. In this analysis I rely on Friedrich Kittler’s mediological theses. My purpose is to demonstrate the opportunities available to describe the differences between typewriting and handwriting. Finally, from the perspective of literary history I mention the effects and traits of mechanization – also present in mediology – on Babits’s thinking and poetic worldview.