Summary of the impact

The Oxford World's Classics (OWC), re-founded in 1980 as a paperback series and now also available electronically, includes many new translations from European languages with introduction and notes written for a non-expert reader by scholars drawing on their academic research. Three members of the Oxford Modern Languages Faculty (Cronk, Kahn, Robertson) have been particularly active in translating and/or editing volumes and in advising the Series Commissioning Editor on the basis of their respective research expertise. The impact is partly economic (sales, including export sales), partly cultural in making key works of European literature accessible to an Anglophone public reliant on translations and partly educational as the editions are adopted worldwide on secondary school, undergraduate and graduate reading lists. The OWC editions have made classic European literature available to an international market, reaching out to new audiences.

Summary of the impact

Heinrich Böll (1917-1985) was one of post-war Germany's leading writers and public intellectuals. The Edition of Böll's complete works, prepared by a seven-strong international research team which included Finlay, has had significant impact across a number of areas, including commercial publishing (spin-off publications, marketing opportunities); digital humanities (software and platform development for large-scale critical editions, significantly changing working practices); culture and heritage (in particular in the city of Cologne); the media and the public sphere (public debate on the writer's legacy and the Heinrich-Böll foundation's cultural programme in 30 countries).

Summary of the impact

Editorial and biographical research on the work of Virginia Woolf, carried out primarily by Susan Sellers, fed directly into the composition of Vanessa and Virginia, a novel by Sellers about Woolf's relationship with her sister. In 2008 Vanessa and Virginia was published by a small independent publisher set up in 2006 in the north-west Highlands of Scotland. It became the press's most commercially successful publication and ensured its early economic viability. The novel was subsequently published in North America and translated into more than a dozen languages. It was also turned into a successful, inter-nationally-staged play. This case study therefore claims several types of impact: (1) exporting the cultural heritage of the UK and stimulating international public interest in Woolf; (2) generating economic prosperity for a small entrepreneurial business in a remote part of Scotland, and for the creative industries (theatre and international publishing) more widely; (3) inspiring and facilitating the work of other cultural practitioners; (4) enriching cultural life in the UK and abroad. The users of this research are: the directors of an independent publishing company; translators and international publishing houses; the director, producer and actors of a touring theatre company; the reading and theatre-going public.

Summary of the impact

James Hogg (1770-1835) is an important but hitherto little known nineteenth-century Scottish author and songwriter. In recent years, Stirling research has demonstrably expanded the audience for Hogg's songs and poetry in Scotland, the wider UK, and USA. Contemporary writers and artists have become more engaged with Hogg's work, and among the public this research has generated greater appreciation of the Scottish literary and music tradition in particular, while promoting Scottish cultural heritage in general, at home, and around the world.

Summary of the impact

Making a major contribution to English recovery research in the Unit, work associated with this case study has brought to a wider public:

1) the works of writers whose livelihoods were principally earned through manual labour or craft skills;

2) radical and neglected writing across a range of periods, genres and cultural contexts.

This has led to impact through enhancement of public understanding of literary and cultural value.

Underpinning research began in 1994; subsequently three principal routes to impact have evolved:

1) the development of open access online resources, in particular, `Labouring-Class Poets Online';

2) NTU publishing imprint, Trent Editions, which combines scholarly research with dissemination of neglected radical writing;

3) engagement with literary societies and related organizations.

Summary of the impact

The Stevenson project, in collaboration with the National Library of Scotland, has built bridges between general and scholarly readers of a major, popular Scottish author. The project helped to change the ways in which members of the public understand the significance of editorial work and book-history. Providing readers with practical skills with which to approach varying editions of Stevenson's work, it promoted broader understanding of how we encounter the work of major authors. It has also influenced the ways in which the National Library of Scotland (NLS) communicates its central mission to the public, by demonstrating how to expand appreciation not just of literary works themselves but also of the Library's collections and its role in preserving and presenting our literary heritage.

Summary of the impact

Roger Parker's case study involves his critical edition of Donizetti's opera Le Duc d'Albe, which was given its world premiere at Vlaamse Opera (Belgium) with an international cast in May-June 2012. This edition made available to the public, for the first time, what is in effect a new Donizetti opera, never before (even in the composer's lifetime) performed in its original language and in this particular configuration. The impact of the performances is demonstrable in international reviews and in the fact that a commercial recording of the opera is now planned (by Opera Rara of London).

Summary of the impact

Regional and national audiences have benefited from enhanced perceptions of the linguistic and literary heritage of the West Midlands. Cultural capital has been created by engaging members of the public in the discovery of their linguistic and literary past through their unprecedented access to and understanding of a manuscript written in the dialect of the medieval West Midlands. Increased national interest in the region's cultural heritage has been generated.

Summary of the impact

Andrew Biswell's research since 1995 has focused on the literature of Anthony Burgess. This work has brought about an international resurgence of public interest in Burgess's artistic legacies, with particular emphasis on his novels, short stories, letters and music. The underpinning research has generated demonstrable impacts in cultural life (enriching the lives and imagination of readers); school education (the creation of educational IT resources for school-age students); public discourse (contributing to a debate about crime and society); tourism (creating visitor experiences through a public exhibition); commercial activity (development of an innovative electronic resource); and commemoration and remembrance (concerts on BBC radio and at the Imperial War Museum North).

Summary of the impact

The Gutzkow project, co-directed by Lauster and Vonhoff of the Department of Modern Languages (German), has transformed public access to the author's work through open-access, on-line publication. The project, which combines specialist scholarship with innovative editing, has considerably enhanced public appreciation of a widened canon of 19^th-century German literature (impact 1). User testimonies, the international press, public acknowledgement and public involvement in events in the region reveal a significant renewal of public interest in Gutzkow. The editorial results of the Gutzkow project have been requested by an interdisciplinary linguistic digitization project in Berlin and will be fully integrated in this open access linguistic database (impact 2).