Musil Online - TEI Consolidation

Reading Texts MoE: Consolidation of TEI-Data

Musil Online is a joint editorial project of the University of Klagenfurt (Robert Musil Institute for Literary Research/Carinthian Literary Archive) and the Austrian National Library. Its aim is to make the works of Robert Musil accessible in a modern, hybrid form – combining the printed edition with a digital publication. Following the successful launch of the prototype in 2022, the current focus lies on integrating and updating the reading texts of The Man Without Qualities (1930/32), which have so far been available only in an earlier online version from 2016. These efforts make an important contribution to the long-term preservation, research, and dissemination of a central work of Austrian literary history.

Project Information

In the current project phase, the reading texts from the printed edition (Complete Works, Volumes 1–6, Salzburg/Vienna: Jung und Jung 2016–2018) are being transferred into the TEI data model developed for Musil Online. The initial modelling was carried out in 2023; the next step is a manual consolidation of the data to ensure the highest editorial quality. This includes correcting faulty markup, standardising document structures, and adding precise metadata—such as exact page signatures—to link reading text and digital facsimile.
The work is carried out in close cooperation with the Austrian National Library’s Department for Research and Data Services. It will be implemented by a research associate with advanced XML/TEI skills and familiarity with Musil’s text corpus. The release of the consolidated reading texts is planned for winter/spring 2024/25 – contributing to the Digital Humanities Austria strategy paper (2021+) and supporting the promotion of early-career researchers.

Musil Online was released in Summer 2025 .