Redaction (of a Text)

A redaction (in textology) is one of the variants of a work's text, arising from its conscious reworking — by the author or by another person (editor, copyist). Unlike minor variant readings, a redaction implies substantial, purposeful changes in the ideational-artistic content, extent, or structure of a work. One distinguishes authorial redactions (the result of a writer's work on a text — e.g., the first and second redactions) and non-authorial ones. A work may exist in several redactions, and establishing their relationship, chronology, and the author's 'final creative will' is one of the key tasks of textology in preparing a critical edition. Early monuments often survive in several redactions (the short and expanded redactions of the 'Rus' Justice'; the redactions of the chronicles). The problem of the authorial redactions of the works of Taras Shevchenko and the classics of Ukrainian literature was studied by the academic textological school in preparing complete editions.