Critical

The German and French schools of genetic criticism believed in putting the emphasis on textual development and genesis and opted to study the versions of a work (including drafts and so called paralipomena) rather than concentrating on establishing a single text for every work, which the Anglo-American school did.

The German school of Editionswissenschaft with its historical-critical editions, traditionally focuses on presenting a constituted (critical) base text against which textual variation is documented for text-historical reasons, whereas the French school of critique génétique traditionally concentrates on the genetic study of the text in relation to the avant texte which can be found in notebooks, cahiers, etc. An ‘extreme’ group in the latter school is sometimes not even interested in the printed versions of a work, nor in establishing a clear text.