Reading Behind the Lines: Ghost Texts & Spectral Imaging in Modern Literary Manuscripts

Dr Michael Sullivan, University of Oxford

In the last decade, advances in multispectral imaging have catalysed an entire field of study in medieval and early modern manuscripts and art. New artworks are being discovered behind existing masterpieces and erased manuscripts resurrected in ancient palimpsests, while recovered ink signatures of medieval illuminators are allowing scholars to trace the trade routes of pigments in the medieval world. For all their potential, however, these methods have yet to be applied to manuscripts of modern English verse. This paper presents the findings of the first sustained application of multispectral imaging to the study of modern anglophone literature. It recovers previously unreadable variants in the manuscripts of Alfred Tennyson and the Shelley Circle and pioneers methods of multispectral processing as a literary-critical act in itself. Beyond establishing new methods for digital editing and contributing to current debates about the form of digital editions, the work restores lines that were previously illegible, opening up for consideration stages of composition and revision that have previously been irretrievable—beyond the limits of critical interpretation. Its conclusions offer a theorization and critical conceptualization of how these digital methods can contribute to the formal and intellectual-historical study of modern manuscripts.