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
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Correspondence
Biographies
Poems
Critics’ analyses
OED
Post-Postmodern Evidence
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Text messages
YouTube
Tweets
Email
Digital Archives
Poetry slams
Blogs
Categories of Evidence
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Primary
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Secondary
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Tertiary
Primary sources
AND
Secondary Sources
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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 Gilman appeared 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
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Literary dictionaries
Encyclopedias
Spark Notes
OED
Tertiary Sources: Examples
Tertiary Sources: Examples
Flow of Literary Evidence
Unpublished manuscript (ms)
Charlotte Perkins Gilman
.
Image: The Forerunner
Flow of Evidence: “Yellow Wall-Paper”
Primary Sources: Types of Editions
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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.
Incompetent editors, proof-correctors, and publishers.
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
Corruption of a Text: YWP
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.
Yellow Wall-Paper: Corrupted Section
Breaks
“Yellow Wall-Paper”: Publication History
How do I know my text is authoritative?
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:
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Explain the method used in determining the copytext on which the edition is based.
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Cleanse text of corruptions
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Place the work in context
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Discuss conventions, styles, traditions
Current Authoritative Editions
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Uncollected primary works
Recent scholarship
Summary
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Three types of literary sources (primary, secondary, tertiary)
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Creative works (e.g. novels) generate the flow of scholarly
information.
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Five types of literary editions (Facsimile, Variorum
Authoritative, Mass market/trade, E-text)
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Authoritative editions are crucial to critical interpretations
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Locate authoritative editions through scholarly book reviews.
Types of Literary Scholarship
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Journal articles
Conference papers
Essays
Books
Dissertations
Who Writes Literary Scholarship?
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Professors
Graduate students
Independent scholars