The Production of Literary Research Sources

Critic’s Tools: Literary 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 Literary Evidence

Text messages YouTube Tweets Email Digital Archives Poetry slams Blogs

Categories of Literary Evidence

Primary

Secondary

Tertiary

Primary Sources of Literary Evidence

AND

Secondary Sources of Literary Evidence

Critical articles Book reviews Biographies Dissertations Conference Papers

Secondary SourcesCritical Analysis: Catherine Golden’s article: “Marking Her Territory: Feline Behavior in "The Yellow Wall-Paper,” published in the periodical American Literary Realism, 2008.

Book ReviewJanet Beer’s review of Golden’s boo: The Mixed Legacy of Charlotte Perkins Gilman appeared in the October 1, 2002 issue of Modern Language Review

BiographyAnn 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 of Literary Evidence

Literary dictionaries Encyclopedias Spark Notes OED

Tertiary Sources: Examples

Flow of Literary Evidence

Charlotte Perkins Gilman

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Image: The Forerunner

Flow of Evidence: “Yellow Wall-Paper”

Unpublished Manuscripts

Primary Sources: Types of Editions

Facsimile Variorum Authoritative/Definitive 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.

Authoritative Editions

The purpose of a scholarly edition is to present a reliable text.

Authoritative Editions

Critics and scholars victims of 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 beastlybugger 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 SonJonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s TravelsChaucer’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

Explain the method used in determining the copy-text on which the edition is based.

Cleanse text of corruptions

Place text in historical context

Discuss conventions, styles, traditions

Using sound textual principles, scholarly editors:

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