Seminar Title: Textual Studies: Book History and the History of Books
Overview and Goals: This course will serve as an introduction to textual scholarship,
including the principles of bibliographic description and analysis, the history textual
production and dissemination, and the various meanings elucidated by examining the sociotextual history of literary works. The course will introduce graduate students to the
terminology of textual studies and foster an awareness of the textual condition of the works
they encounter in their careers as readers. Though students are trained to be close readers
of words on the page, students are seldom trained to read a bit more closely and interrogate
the basis and tradition of text they read. D.F. McKenzie reminds literary scholars that
a book is never simply a remarkable object. Like every other technology it is
invariably the product of human agency in complex and highly volatile
contexts which a responsible scholarship must seek to recover if we are to
understand better the creation and communication of meaning as the
defining characteristic of human societies.
The objective of this course is to introduce students to the interpretive possibilities of
textual criticism and promote an awareness of the textual condition and textual history of
the literary works they encounter. Students will create case studies of literary works of
their choosing and present their findings to the class. This work will culminate with a
textual analysis in the form of a seminar paper, exploring the textual cruxes, editorial
tradition, and/or socio-textual history of a chosen work.
Secondary Texts
Peter Shillingsburg, From Gutenberg to Google (2006).
Erick Kelemen, Textual Editing and Criticism: An Introduction (2008).
David Finkelstein and Alistair McCleery, Introduction to Book History (2002).
D.F. McKenzie, Bibliography and the Sociology of Text (1984).
Primary Texts
Beowulf (any translation will do for background purposes)
Piers Plowman
Apocryphal Canterbury Tales (see online)
Three Shrew Plays
King Lear
Mary Shelley, Frankenstein. (The Original Frankenstein, ed. by Charles E. Robinson)
Phases of the Course:
1. An introduction to the language of textual scholarship and the various theoretical
approaches that fall within the field of textual studies.
2. A survey of the history of book technologies from scroll to codex to digital.
3. Case studies from several literary traditions and historical moments.
Weeks
9 JANUARY--Textual Editing and Criticism pp. 1-27; Introduction to Book History pp. 1-84;
16 JANUARY—NO CLASS
23 JANUARY—Textual Editing and Criticism pp. 29-120 and the “Working with Editions”
section; Introduction to Book History pp. 85-132;
30 JANUARY--Textual Editing and Criticism pp. 123-225 and “Working with Documents;”
6 FEBRUARY—Book History: Greatest Hits—“What is the History of Books” by Robert
Darnton; “The Socialization of Texts” by Jerome McGann; “Orality and Literacy” by Walter
Ong; “The Death of the Author” by Roland Barthes; “What is an Author” Michel Foucault;
“The End of the Reign of the Book” by Roger Chartier; The Nature of the Book (excerpts) by
Adrian Johns; “Defining the Initial Shift” by Elizabeth Eisenstein.
13 FEBRUARY-- Beowulf and the Beowulf Manuscript (read the other texts of the Beowulf
MS); Excerpts from Pride and Prodigies: Studies in the Monsters of the Beowulf-Manuscript
(see course site);
20 FEBRUARY— The apocryphal Canterbury Tales (The Cook’s Tale); “Answering the Riddle
of the Cook’s Tale” (see course site); Excerpts from Textual Criticism and Middle English
Texts; A Catalogue of Chaucer Manuscripts pp. 1-30;
27 FEBRUARY— Piers Plowman (A, B, C, Z?); Textual Editing and Criticism pp. 333-362;
Excerpts from Public Piers Plowman (see course site);
5 MARCH— Shakespeare’s Shrews? (Or not?) Textual Editing and Criticism pp. 226-252;
281-286; “Who is Performing “in” these Text(s)?; Or, Shrew-ing Around” from In Arden:
Editing Shakespeare (see course site);
12 MARCH—SPRING BREAK
19 MARCH— Shakespeare’s Lear(s) (Two plays or one?); Textual Editing and Criticism pp.
287-332;
26 MAR— Frankenstein (co-authored?); Textual Editing and Criticism pp. 363--383
2 APRIL— Bibliography and the Sociology of Text pp. 1-76; Student Case Studies
9 APRIL—Bibliography and the Sociology of Text pp. 79-128; Student Case Studies
16 APRIL—From Gutenberg to Google pp. 1-137; Student Case Studies
23 APRIL—From Gutenberg to Google pp. 138-199; Student Case Studies