The cultural and individual conditions governing the production and reception of modernist literature are reflected in an almost material way in the tiny pencil manuscripts and the fair copies in ink that are part and parcel of Robert Walser's (1878-1956) writing system. The study discusses the methodological approaches and the concepts with which these documents can be made the subject of scholarly examination in the realm of literary studies. Without restricting itself to a purely philological exploration of writing processes, it reconstructs the individual, material-bound poetics behind Walser's writing.