Obliterative Text Ontology – English Summary

Obliterative Textontology (OTO) – English summary

Obliterative Textontology proposes that a literary work is not limited to the words printed on the page. Every text is surrounded by an invisible periphery of alternative formulations, omitted passages and latent variants that can be activated under certain conditions. This dynamic field, called a palimpsestic cluster, contains multiple textual versions and potential options that co‑exist without cancelling each other out. Reading a text is therefore entering a high‑dimensional system in which visible and invisible layers interact. OTO introduces the notion of obliteration: a reversible fading out of one manifestation to allow another to surface. This concept transforms the traditional view of reading as linear progress through a fixed sequence; instead, passages can shift, disappear or reappear as the text negotiates with its periphery. The theory also extends to reality itself, suggesting that our world may be akin to a vast text composed of multiple unrealised possibilities and supra‑cycles of versions. By analysing how texts change over time and how variants interfere, OTO offers a model of complexity in which stability is provisional and meaning arises from the tension between manifestation and potential.