The Production of Literary Research Sources

Types of Literary Scholarship

Journal articles Conference papers Essays Books Dissertations

Who Writes Literary Scholarship?

Professors Graduate students Independent scholars

Types of Literary Research Sources

Primary

Secondary

Tertiary

Primary sources

Primary sources are the raw data of literary research. Examples include:

AND

A primary work often appears in the form of an unpublished manuscript (MS).

Secondary Sources

critical articles book reviews biographies

Secondary sources interpret primary sources. Examples include:

Secondary Sources: Examples

Critical articles

Book Reviews

Biographies

Tertiary Sources

Tertiary sources synthesize work reported in primary and secondary sources. Examples include:

Dictionaries

Encyclopedias

Tertiary Sources: Examples

Dictionaries

Encyclopedias

Creative Sources in Literature

Creative works (e.g. novels) generate the flow of scholarly information in the form of secondary and tertiary works.

Flow of Scholarly Information

Scholarly Flow of Information

The following slides illustrate the flow of information (primary, secondary, and tertiary) using a famous late 19th century short story.

Scholarly Flow of Information

On June 6 and 7, 1890, Charlotte Perkins Gilman wrote her notable short story, “The Yellow Wall-Paper,” in Pasadena, California.

The next slides will illustrate the flow of scholarly information using “The Yellow Wall-Paper.”

Flow of Information: “Yellow Wall-Paper”

Flow of Information: “Yellow Wall-Paper”

Once Gilman’s manuscript is published in the form of an edition, it is read and reviewed, which generates interest in the story. As such, additional editions of the YWP are published.

Eventually, the story attracts the attention of scholars who critique the story within the context of formal literary theories. Subsequently, scholars build upon the work of earlier YWP scholars.

As interest in YWP increases, there is a demand for more information about Gilman’s life and work. Consequently, her other work such as, Herland, is published as well as her diaries and autobiography.

Gilman becomes well-established in the canon of American literature.

Editions of Primary Works

Once an author releases the manuscript (MS) to her editor, she relinquishes a certain amount of control over how the MS is treated.

The MS becomes a collaborative effort between the author and all those (editors, proof-correctors, and publishers) who have an opportunity to alter the text.

The author must depend upon the editor and others to create a reliable, authoritative text.

Primary Sources: Types of Editions

The author’s MS may be produced in a variety of editions to satisfy needs of different types of readers.

Facsimile* Variorum* Authoritative Mass market/trade* E-text*

*For definitions of these terms, click here for glossary.

Authoritative Texts

The authoritative text is most often used by scholars/critics for close readings of literary texts.

Authoritative Editions

What is an authoritative edition?

An editor’s best estimate of the work as the author

might have expected her first audience to read it.

The following slides demonstrate what happens when a MS falls into the hands 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.”

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, in Southwell’s time “sack” indicated a class of white wines. So, according to this edition, Southwell admits to being a drunkard!

Robert Louis Stevenson’s Corrupted Editions

Stevenson’s editor, Sydney Colvin, consistently misread Stevenson’s texts, for example:

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”

Rowse’s revisions change the meaning of the line. Juliet wonders where Romeo is when, in fact, she is lamenting his Montague heritage.

Expurgated Texts: Sniffing Out the Smut

Older editions of these texts eliminated passages deemed “obscene” by editors:

Richard Wright’s Native Son

Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels

Chaucer’s Wife of Bath

The previous examples demonstrate how unreliable texts of primary works can adversely affect the way a scholar interprets meaning.

Corruption of a Text: YWP

The following slides illustrate the evolution of unreliable editions of Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wall-Paper.”

Over the years, Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wall-Paper” has suffered from the incompetence of several editors.

Yellow Wall-Paper: Publication History

*The following is based on Julie Dock’s discussion of the YWP.

While the YWP has been published continuously by the popular press since 1892, Hedges’ 1973 edition triggered interest among literary scholars.*

Yellow Wall-Paper: Corruption of a Text

The following slides provide some examples of how incompetent editors created unstable texts of the “The Yellow Wall-Paper.”

YWP: Authoritative text

Below is a line from an authoritative edition of YWP:

John laughs at me, of course, but one expects that in marriage.

YWP: Corruption of the text

Compare the line from the previous slide with the lines (below) published in two unstable editions. Note that each edition dropped the word “marriage.” As such, meaning becomes ambiguous.

Edition 1: John laughs at me, of course, but one expects that. (expects what? that he thinks the narrator funny? that she is a silly woman? that John is a jerk? that the house is spooky?)

Edition 2: John laughs at me, of course, but one expects that in men. (expects what? is the narrator bashing men?)

YWP: Section Breaks

Gilman uses journal entries throughout her story to depict the mental state of the narrator. To indicate each break, Gilman uses a series of asterisks (*).

Unfortunately, several editors disrupted Gilman’s section breaks. These editors either eliminated or added section breaks. Consequently, these editorial decisions changed the character, mood, and emotional state of the narrator.

Yellow Wall-Paper: Corrupted Section Breaks

How do I know my text is authoritative?

The best way to determine the authority of an edition is to read scholarly reviews of the edition.

Scholarly reviews will assess the quality of the edition by evaluating the copy-text used by the editor.

To establish an authoritative edition, a competent editor chooses a reliable copy-text or base text.

A copy-text can be the author’s manuscript (MS) or an earlier published version of the primary work.

In order to determine the best copy-text, the editor compares different versions of the primary work. Versions could include the author’s mss and/or previous published editions.

For example, Julie Dock chose the version of the “The Yellow Wall-Paper published in The New England Magazine in January, 1892.

Her edition influenced subsequent editors to publish competent texts of YWP.

Authoritative Editions

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

Using sound textual principles, scholarly editors:

Current Authoritative Editions

It is important that scholars have the most recent, reliable edition because it will incorporate:

uncollected work Incorporate recent research

Remember! Beware of an edition’s claim of authoritativeness.

You must verify the claim with scholarly book reviews.

To locate scholarly book reviews of literary editions, go to the course home page and click on “Searching for Book Reviews.”

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 via scholarly book reviews.