Introduction to Literature
Lecture 1
Literary Research. Tools of the
Trade. Manuscripts, Texts,
Editions, Sources, Resources
Main Goals of Education in
Humanities / Literary Studies
Philology = ‘science of literature’
Etymology:
Greek philo ‘love’ + logos ‘word’
The Scholar
• Keeper or treasurer of cultural / literary
traditions
• Professional reader and writer of texts
• Critical thinker
• Works to preserve, transmit and
interpret literary products
Professional Text Expert
The Scholar
• In order to carry out the task the
student (the future critic, scholar) has
to become a professional reader
• Professional reading does not exclude
reading for pleasure, but employs
different and subtler reading strategies
• To develop critical thinking
• To learn to argue for findings based on
scholarly research
1. Tools of Research
To learn how to professionally use works
(texts, manuscripts, books)
To learn how to use the tools of the trade
– Libraries
• Research
• Public
– Sources
• Manuscripts / Typescripts
• Books
– Editions
– Aids (handbooks, dictionaries, lexicons)
• Internet sources
Oxford Companion to English Literature
Different editions – same editor
Oxford Companion to English Literature
Different editions – different editors
MLA Handbook
Different editions
J. A: Cuddon (revised by C. E. Preston:
Dictionary of Literary Terms and Literary Theory
4th Edition. London: Penguin Books, 1999
2. Tools of Analysis
To learn how to use intellectual tools, i.e., other
disciplines
Literary theory (Approaches to interpretation)
Stylistics
Rhetoric
Poetics
Philosophy
The Professional Reader
• 1 What to find in a book i.e., how to
take a book in your hands, what to look
for, how to judge if it is a reliable or an
unreliable source
• 2 What to find in a literary work, how to
read it, how to interpret it
Terms
From Text to Interpretation
– work
– text
– manuscript
– fragment
– apocrypha
– book
– anthology
– collection
– oeuvre
Terms
From Text to Interpretation (Cont.)
– copyright
– plagiarism
– handbook and
manual
– lexicon
– dictionary
– analysis /
interpretation
Terms to define: editions
(both for electronic and printed
formats)
– edition
– first edition
– enlarged
edition
– revised edition
– popular edition
– annotated
edition
– critical edition
– variorum
edition
– limited edition
The Text
• The actual words of a book in their
original form or any form they have
been transmitted
• The main body of matter in a book
(apart from notes etc.)
• A short passage taken from the Bible
as the theme
Manuscript / Typescript
• Manuscript
– A book or a document of any kind written
by hand rather than printed or typed
• Typescript
– A typewritten document
Manuscripts
by Thomas Hardy and W. B. Yeats
Typescript and manuscript
by T. S. Eliot
Typescript page
from Tom Stoppard’s Arcadia
Editions
Books often appear in more than one
edition. To give a simple example, a
book may be published in a hardback
and a paperback edition. These have
different ISBN numbers even if the
pagination (page numbering) is
identical in both.
Editions (Cont.)
If a book is published again, there are
sometimes changes to the text (beyond
correcting misprints). Every
republishing of this kind is another
edition. So, a book may have a 1st, 2nd,
3rd edition, etc.
Editions (how to refer to)
• If a work has been revised and extended it
may contain whole chapters that are not
included in earlier editions.
• In academic writing, your bibliography must
always state clearly which edition you used.
• It is also often useful in the bibliography to
state when the work was first published.
Editions - details
• First edition
the total number of copies of a book
printed from one set of type
one edition may have several
impressions or printings
• Second edition
if the original type is changed
and the book is reprinted
• Second edition with corrections
• Revised edition
Editions - details (Cont.)
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Collected / Complete edition
Abridged edition
Enlarged / Extended edition
Limited edition
mostly for collectors
• Reprint edition / facsimile edition
a re-publishing, keeping the original
format, of material that has already
been published
The first paperback edition of an
individual collection of 1964 by Philip
Larkin and a later imprint
The first hardback edition of an
individual collection of 1974
The same collection with different
cover designs, various imprints
Selected Poems of 2002 and 2011
Collected Poems of 1988 and 1989
by British and American publishers
Collected Poems
New edition 2003
Early Poems and Juvenilia
2005
Complete Poems 2012
Editions - details (Cont.)
• Popular editions
vs
• Annotated editions
with textual comments, explanatory notes
on the text
Popular edition of complete works
Collected, annotated and variorum
editions of W. B. Yeats’s poems
Terms to define: apparatus
– apparatus
– reference
– bibliography
– index
– glossary
– note
– footnote
– endnote
– appendix
Footnotes
• Footnotes are listed numerically and consecutively, both in the
text of the research paper and in the footnote citation.
• Footnote numbers are superscripted.
• In the text, the superscripted number must be added
immediately after the quote or reference cited with no space.
• The footnote citations are added at the foot or bottom of the
same page where the sources are cited.
Footnotes - enlarged for your
convenience
• Footnotes are listed numerically
and consecutively, both in the text
of the research paper and in the
footnote citation.
• Footnote numbers are
superscripted.
Footnotes - enlarged for your
convenience (Cont.)
• In the text, the superscripted
number must be added
immediately after the quote or
reference cited with no space.
• The footnote citations are added at
the foot or bottom of the same
page where the sources are cited.
Footnote
Badford, Curtis: „Yeats’s Byzantium Poems: A Study of Their
Development”. PMLA, Vol. 75, No. 1 (Mar., 1960), pp. 110-125
Endnotes
• Endnotes are listed numerically and
consecutively, both in the text of the
research paper and in the endnote
citation.
• Endnote numbers are
superscriptednumbers
Endnotes (Cont.)
• In the text, superscripted numbers are
added immediately after the quote or
reference cited with no space.
• Endnotes must be added on a separate
Endnotes or Notes page at the end of
the essay just before the Works Cited
(MLA) or Bibliography(Chicago Style
Manual) page.
Endnote
Attridge, Derek: ”Rhythm in English Poetry”. New Literary History, Vol.
21, No. 4, Papers from the Commonwealth Center for Literary and
Cultural Change (Autumn, 1990), pp. 1015-1037
Editions with annotation
• Critical edition
includes variant readings and scholarly
emendations after careful study of
manuscripts or printings to determine the
original or most authoritative form of a
text
• Variorum edition
contains the complete works of an author
accompanied by the notes of previous
commentators and editors,
and indications of the textual changes
made during successive printings
The variorum edition and a popular
edition of Donne’s poems
Annotated / Critical editions
An annotated edition of Donne’s
poems
Edition of complete poems with
notes
Two different editions of Donne’s
selected works
John Donne
The second collection of his poems
1669
John Donne
The first collection of his poems,
1633
A facsimile edition of a porse work
by Donne
Anthologies of a period / movement
Anthologies
Series
Selections
(Oxford World Classics)
Series
Individual Works
(Oxford World Classics)
Key Terms for Lecture 1
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text
book
work
manuscript
typescript
Fragment
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anthology
collection
oeuvre
apocrypha
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copyright
plagiarism
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sources
handbook and manual
lexicon
dictionary
Edition
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edition
first edition
enlarged edition
revised edition
popular edition
annotated edition
critical edition
variorum edition
limited edition
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apparatus
bibliography
reference
index
glossary
note
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footnote
endnote
appendix