Greetham, D. C. Textual Scholarship: An Introduction. New York & London: Garland Publishing, 1994.
Greg, W. W. "The Rationale of Copy-text," Studies in Bibliography. (1950) 3: 19 - 36.
Kopytoff, Igor. "The Cultural Biography of Things: Commoditization as Process," The Social Life of Things: Commodities in Cultural Perspective. Ed. Arjun Appadurai. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1986: 64 - 91.
Latour, Bruno and Lowe. "The Migration of the Aura," Switching Codes. Eds. Thomas Bartscherer and Roderick Coover.
McKenzie, D. F. "Printers of the Mind," Studies in Bibliography. (1969) 22: 1-75.
Tanselle, G. Thomas. Bibliographical Analysis: A Historical Analysis.
And others, as we find the need.
Grading
Students will be graded on their grasp of the materials encountered during the course. "Grasp" will be determined primarily through classroom engagement, and secondarily through small assignments and a descriptive bibliography of a text chosen from Acadia's Special Collections.
Module 1: Introduction
January 10 & 12
By way of introduction to the course, we will read and discuss the texts listed below, examine some facsimile reproductions of early printed title pages, and discuss John Donne's "Elegy V".
Kopytoff, Igor. "The Cultural Biography of Things: Commoditization as Process," The Social Life of Things: Commodities in Cultural Perspective. Ed. Arjun Appadurai. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1986: 64 - 91.
Latour, Bruno, and Lowe, Adam. "The Migration of the Aura," Switching Codes: Thinking Through Digital Technology in the Humanities and the Arts. Chicago: U of Chicago P, 2011: 275 - 98.
Module 2: Bibliography and History of the Book
January 17 - 31
In this module students will be introduced to enumerative, descriptive, and analytical bibliography, as well as the processes of production and the products (texts) of the handpress period.
Jan. 19
Bowers, Fredson. "Purposes of Descriptive Bibliography, with Some Remarks on Method," The Library [: Transactions of the Bibliographical Society], 5th series, 8.1 (March 1953): 1 - 22.
Tanselle, G. Thomas. "Description of Descriptive Bibliography," Studies in Bibliography, Vol. 45 (1992): 1 - 30.
Jan. 24
Tanselle, G. Thomas. Introduction, Bibliographical Analysis: A Historical Analysis.
Tanselle, G. Thomas. "Foundations: To 1908," Bibliographical Analysis: A Historical Analysis: 6 - 14.
Tanselle, G. Thomas. "Foundations: 1908-1945," Bibliographical Analysis: A Historical Analysis: 14 - 22.
Tanselle, G. Thomas. Introduction, "Foundations: 1945 - 1969," Bibliographical Analysis: A Historical Analysis: 22 - 25.
Tanselle, G. Thomas. Introduction, "Foundations: Since 1969," Bibliographical Analysis: A Historical Analysis: 25 - 30.
Jan. 31
Visit to Acadia's archives
Feb. 2
Barthes, Roland. "The Death of the Author."
Darnton, Robert. "What is the History of Book?"
Foucault, Michel. "What is an Author?"
Module 3: The Sociology of Texts
Feb. 7 - 16
The sociology of the text module will follow the lead of D.F. McKenzie and other "Bibliographers of the Mind" in considering how the material form of texts determines their meaning by examining the roles of all concerned with the making, distribution, and reception of the text. Through this module students will be introduced to work being done in the history of reading.
Feb. 9 - 14
"Printers of the Mind"
Feb. 14 - 16
"Bibliography and the Sociology of Texts"
Reading Week
Feb. 20 - 24
Module 4: Editorial Principles and The Scholarly Edition
Feb. 28: - Mar. 8
In this module we will distinguish between first editions, subsequent editions, and scholarly editions of texts.
Shillingsburg, Peter. "An Inquiry Into The Social Status Of Texts And Modes Of Textual Criticism," Studies in Bibliography 42 (1989): 55-79
Greetham, D. C., ch. 9 - "Scholarly Editing," Textual Scholarship, pp. 347 - 72.
Module 5: The Present and Future of Textual Studies
Mar. 13 - April 5
In this final module students will be introduced to xml encoding, the Text Encoding Initiative, HTML5, the concept and work of INKE, the ELO, and other relevant work in traditional and electronic textuality. We will also examine recent developments in the ongoing battle for content ownership in the age of the Cloud.