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The Production of Literary Research Sources. Critic’s Tools: Textual Evidence. Use to determine or support the truth of a claim. Emily Dickinson. Did Dickinson’s seclusion from society inform her poetry?. Possible Supporting Evidence. Correspondence Biographies Poems Critics’ analyses
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Critic’s Tools: Textual Evidence Use to determine or support the truth of a claim.
Emily Dickinson Did Dickinson’s seclusion from society inform her poetry?
Possible Supporting Evidence • Correspondence • Biographies • Poems • Critics’ analyses • OED
Post-Postmodern Evidence • Text messages • YouTube • Tweets • Email • Digital Archives • Poetry slams • Blogs
Categories of Evidence • Primary • Secondary • Tertiary
Primary sources AND
Secondary Sources • Critical articles • Book reviews • Biographies • Dissertations • Conference Papers
Secondary Sources Critical Analysis: Catherine Golden’s article, “Marking Her Territory: Feline Behavior in "The Yellow Wall-Paper,” published in the periodical American Literary Realism, 2008. Book Review Janet Beer’s review of Golden’s book The Mixed Legacy of Charlotte Perkins Gilmanappeared in the October 1, 2002 issue of Modern Language Review Biography Ann J. Lane’s To Herland and Beyond: The Life and Work Of Charlotte Perkins Gilman, published by University of Virginia Press in 1997.
Tertiary Sources • Literary dictionaries • Encyclopedias • Spark Notes • OED
Charlotte Perkins Gilman . Image: The Forerunner
Primary Sources: Types of Editions • Facsimile • Variorum • Authoritative • Mass market/trade • E-text
Authoritative Editions The authoritative edition is a fundamental tool in literary studies.
Authoritative Editions The reader is given what the author intended.
The purpose of a scholarly edition is to present a reliable text.
Editor’s Misreading of Robert Southwell’s Letter to Samuel Pepys Authoritative edition: [I] lost my health by sitting many years near an inck bottle.” Unreliable edition: “[I] lost my health by sitting many years near a sack bottle.”
Robert Louis Stevenson’s Corrupted Editions box becomes fox cottage becomes cabbage bloody becomes beastly bugger becomes beggar
A.L. Rowse’s Corrupted Text of Romeo & Juliet Authoritative Shakespeare edition: “ Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo” Rowse’s edition: “O Romeo, Romeo! Wherefore are you, Romeo”
Expurgated Texts: Sniffing Out the Smut Richard Wright’s Native Son Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels Chaucer’s Wife of Bath
YWP: Corruption of the text Reliable ed: John laughs at me, of course, but one expects that in marriage. Unreliable ed. 1: John laughs at me, of course, but one expects that. Unreliable ed. 2: John laughs at me, of course, but one expects that in men.
The best way to determine the authority of an edition is to read professional reviews of the edition.
Editor’s choice of the copy-text determines the reliability of an edition.
Julie Dock’s copy text for the YWP: The New England Magazine in January, 1892.
Authoritative Editions Using sound textual principles, scholarly editors: • Explain the method used in determining the copy-text on which the edition is based. • Cleanse text of corruptions • Place the work in context • Discuss conventions, styles, traditions
Current Authoritative Editions • Uncollected primary works • Recent scholarship
Summary • Three types of literary sources (primary, secondary, tertiary) • Creative works (e.g. novels) generate the flow of scholarly information. • Five types of literary editions (Facsimile, Variorum Authoritative, Mass market/trade, E-text) • Authoritative editions are crucial to critical interpretations • Locate authoritative editions through scholarly book reviews.
Types of Literary Scholarship • Journal articles • Conference papers • Essays • Books • Dissertations
Who Writes Literary Scholarship? • Professors • Graduate students • Independent scholars