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Traditional Approaches to the Study of Literature. Steve Wood TCCC. Textual Scholarship. An important type of literary criticism that is primarily of interest to literary scholars is textual scholarship.
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Traditional Approachesto the Study of Literature Steve Wood TCCC
Textual Scholarship • An important type of literary criticism that is primarily of interest to literary scholars is textual scholarship. • Textual scholarship is interested in one goal: to establish the authentic text. That is, the goal is to establish the history of a text in terms of its creation and its publishing history. Free PowerPoint Template from www.brainybetty.com
Textual Scholarship • For modern authors, this is less of an issue, but as we go back in history, it can become a crucial issue. Free PowerPoint Template from www.brainybetty.com
Textual Scholarship • For example, “Ode on a Grecian Urn” by John Keats was the subject of some textual problems in its early publication history. Free PowerPoint Template from www.brainybetty.com
Textual Scholarship • The last stanza of the poem reads: O Attic shape! Fair attitude! with brede Of marble men and maidens overwrought, With forest branches and the trodden weed; Thou, silent form, dost tease us out of thought As doth eternity: Cold Pastoral! When old age shall this generation waste, Thou shalt remain, in midst of other woe Than ours, a friend to man, to whom thou say’st, “Beauty is truth, truth beauty,”—that is all Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know. Free PowerPoint Template from www.brainybetty.com
Textual Scholarship • In its first publication in 1819, the last two lines of the poem had no quotation marks. Thou shalt remain, in midst of other woe Than ours, a friend to man, to whom thou say’st, Beauty is truth, truth beauty,—that is all Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know. Free PowerPoint Template from www.brainybetty.com
Textual Scholarship • In its next publication in 1820, the last two lines of the poem were enclosed in quotation marks. Thou shalt remain, in midst of other woe Than ours, a friend to man, to whom thou say’st, “Beauty is truth, truth beauty,—that is all Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.” Free PowerPoint Template from www.brainybetty.com
Textual Scholarship • Finally, the poem settled into its current form. Thou shalt remain, in midst of other woe Than ours, a friend to man, to whom thou say’st, “Beauty is truth, truth beauty”,—that is all Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know. Free PowerPoint Template from www.brainybetty.com
Textual Scholarship • Even though the placement of the quotation marks is a slight printing difference, the resolution of the poem does change because of the moved punctuation marks. Free PowerPoint Template from www.brainybetty.com
Textual Scholarship • Another example can be found with William Shakespeare’s play Hamlet. • The play dates from the years 1600 to 1602, but the exact date of the play is unknown. • The play was entered into the Stationers’ Register July 26, 1602, but not marked as a new play. Free PowerPoint Template from www.brainybetty.com
Textual Scholarship • Shakespeare’s sources for the play are difficult to discern exactly. As with most of his plays, there is the issue of originality. • The storyline of Hamlet goes back to the 12th century. • Revenge plays were very popular in Elizabethan drama • Plays about Hamlet were around from 1589 on (at least ten years before the creation of Shakespeare’s version of the story). Free PowerPoint Template from www.brainybetty.com
Textual Scholarship • There are three existing texts of the play. • There are Quatro editions from 1603 and 1604. Quatro versions were usually unauthorized publications, and were most certainly not overseen by Shakespeare. Free PowerPoint Template from www.brainybetty.com
Textual Scholarship • Then there is the version in the First Folio 1623. Seven years after Shakespeare’s death in 1616, an authorized collection of his plays was published. Free PowerPoint Template from www.brainybetty.com
Textual Scholarship • Here are two examples of textual differences in the versions that must be resolved: • In a famous soliloquoy in Act 1, Hamlet talks about the nature of his life and his view of the world around him. In one Quatro, the word “solid” is replaced by “sullied” (1.2.129-131). Free PowerPoint Template from www.brainybetty.com
Textual Scholarship • “O, that this too too solid [or sullied] flesh would meltThaw and resolve itself into a dew!Or that the Everlasting had not fix'dHis canon 'gainst self-slaughter! O God! God!How weary, stale, flat and unprofitable,Seem to me all the uses of this world!Fie on't! ah fie! 'tis an unweeded garden,That grows to seed; things rank and gross in naturePossess it merely. That it should come to this!” Free PowerPoint Template from www.brainybetty.com
Textual Scholarship • A more serious discrepancy can be found in the most famous speech in the play, the “To be or not to be” speech (3.1.55-89). • The speech we are all familiar with is from the First Folio. Free PowerPoint Template from www.brainybetty.com
Textual Scholarship • “To be, or not to be: that is the question:Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to sufferThe slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,And by opposing end them?” Free PowerPoint Template from www.brainybetty.com
Textual Scholarship • However, the Quatro 1 (1603) version of “To be” is very different. “To be, or not to be, I there's the point To Die, to sleepe, is that all? I all:” Free PowerPoint Template from www.brainybetty.com
Historical-biographical Criticism • Historical-biographical criticism involves the relationship between the text, the author, and the world in which the author lived. • Studying the life of the author and the world in which he or she lived helps us understand the text. • Likewise, the text can help us understand the life of the author and his/her world. Free PowerPoint Template from www.brainybetty.com
Historical-biographical Criticism • One example of this type of criticism was the French critic Hippolyte Taine (1828-1893). • In his History of English Literature (1864), he wrote that the study of literature is a study of “race, milleu, et moment.” • Race – heritage or genetics • Milleu – place • Moment -- time Free PowerPoint Template from www.brainybetty.com
Historical-biographical Criticism • Taine compared the work of literature to the fossil of a leaf. • Like the fossil, which tells us of the world of a previous age, the literary work can provide important clues to the life and times of the author. Free PowerPoint Template from www.brainybetty.com
Moral/thematic Criticism • Moral or thematic criticism is a common kind of criticism that concerns the relationship of the work and the universe today. • It asks the question: “What kind of truth does this work reveal to us?” Free PowerPoint Template from www.brainybetty.com
Moral/thematic Criticism • A famous literary critic who used this approach was the Roman critic Horace (65-8 BC). • In his Ars Poetica (The Art of Poetry), Horace wrote that literature should be “dulce et utile” or “sweet and useful.” • In other words, literature should be both entertaining and enlightening. Free PowerPoint Template from www.brainybetty.com
Moral/thematic Criticism • There are two kinds of themes: descriptive and prescriptive. • Descriptive themes are the truths that the work tells us about what the world is like. • Prescriptive themes are the truths that the work tells us about what we should do, how we should live. Free PowerPoint Template from www.brainybetty.com
