Assignments

English 6601 Methods of Research, Fall 2024

T 5:00-7:45 p.m., Arts & Sciences 353

In Class Activities

1. Introduction to Textual Scholarship

To streamline our discussion of textual scholarship, let's break into four groups of two or three students each. Groups will respond to the following key issues in the Greetham chapters and share their discussion with the larger class.

• Greetham, "Finding the Text: Enumerative and Systematic Bibliography"
  • What is enumerative bibliography?
  • What is descriptive bibliography?
  • What is analytical bibliography?
  • What are some systems for enumerative bibliography?
  • What are some resources for scholarly research?
• Greetham, "Evaluating the Text: Textual Bibliography"
  • What are some types of evidence in a handwritten manuscript that can help to determine textual transmission or provenance?
  • Describe some scribal variants such as mechanical variants (misreadings, omissions, additions) and determined variation (changes of subject, modernization or normalization).
  • Describe some technological and electronical errors.
  • How are end materials and dustjackets significant in materialist textual scholarship?
• Greetham, "Criticizing the Text: Textual Criticism"
  • What is a scholarly edition and what are some critical judgments that must be made in its production?
  • What is the Alexandrine school of analogy in classical textual criticism?
  • What does biblical textual criticism do with the multiple variants and versions of biblical texts?
  • What is the textual skepticism of the Late Medieval and Renaissance eras?
  • Describe the debate between authorial intention and historicism in modern textual scholarship.
  • What is the best-text theory of textual scholarship? What is filiation theory?
  • What is the sociology of the text?
  • What is Greg-Bowers eclecticism?
• Greetham, "Editing the Text: Scholarly Editing"
  • What is a critical edition? What is a non-critical edition?
  • What is a manuscript fascimile? What is a print facsimile?
  • What are some documents intended for publication that an editor might consider when creating a critical edition? What are some private documents that an editor might consider in creating a critical edition?
  • Describe the editorial debate among authorial intent, eclecticism, and best-text theory.
  • How might electronic storage affect the future of critical editions?

Textual Scholarship Annotations

The textual scholarship and book history project allows us to practice the methods of textual scholarship learned in the Greetham, Kirschenbaum, and Rside articles.

 

The class will select a work of literature and then individual students will be assigned to research its textual issues (such as the debate between differing scholarly editions or translations), its publication history (discuss its different editions), and its readership history (discuss its critical and social reception, both then and now). Each of you will find and annotate three sources pertaining to your assigned topic.

 

Some examples of topics include the inclusion of T. S. Eliot's notes in the publication of The Waste Land, the 2011 Touch Press Media editions of The Waste Land, the 1965 original publication of Sylvia Plath's Ariel versus the 2004 restored collection, and the original 1922 publication of James Joyce's Ulysses versus Hans Walter Gabler's 1984 edition.

Topics

Bring one or two possible topics to class on Tuesday, September 3; and the class will finalize a topic. The class selected Sophocles's Antigone.

Annotations

The list of sources will be compiled by one or two students by Tuesday, September 10; thanks to Luke Circle and Richard Lassiter for compiling the initial list of sources. The professor will assign sources to students by Tuesday, September 17; find your two assigned sources at the bottom of the 6601 Sign Up Sheet. On Tuesday, September 24, share highlights from what you learned from your sources with the class; and submit your two or three assigned annotations of 75-100 words each to GeorgiaVIEW > Course Work > Assignments > Textual Scholarship Annotations.

Book Review

While the annotated bibliography requires you to research a novel, the book review compels you to read and evaluate a scholarly book about the postmodern novel, either the postmodern novel in general, a postmodern novelist, or a particular postmodern novel. Write an 8-10 page essay that summarizes the book's overall critical claim and then evaluates the thesis and methodology. Your essay should both appreciate and interrogate the book. In class on the day your essay is due, share highlights from your book review for 5-10 minutes. The OWL provides more information about book reviews; and I encourage you to read a few sample reviews from academic journals in your potential research specialization. Assume the audience for your review is teacher-scholars who might use the book for learning, research, or teaching.

Sign Up

Sign up here for one Book Review, one Theory Presentation, and one Critical Application.  Make sure that each of the three major assignments of the regular semester (Book Review, Theory Presentation, and Critical Application) are each about 3-4 weeks apart. 

Parameters

• Length: 8-10 pages
• Format: MLA Style in Word or RTF format (I suggest using this template)
• Due: The paper is due in GeorgiaVIEW > Course Work > Assignments > Book Review on the date scheduled on the sign up sheet.
• Grades: Your assignment will be graded on its appreciative summary of the book, its ability to evaluate and interrogate the book, and the quality of your review highlights. You can retrieve your graded assignment approximately one week after submission in GeorgiaVIEW > Course Work > Assignments > Book Review. Here's how to calculate your course grade.

Theory Presentation

After researching a textual issue in a published literary work, you will research a form of interpretive theory: New Criticism, formalism, reader-response theory, structuralism, Marxism, psychoanlysis, feminism, queer theory, poststructuralism, postmodernism, or ecocriticismAfter signing up for a scholarly method, read the corresponding chapter from Selden, Widdowson, and Brooker's, A Reader's Guide to Contemporary Literary Theory. Compose a 10 source annotated bibliography comprised of overviews of the critical approach (3-5) as well as theoretical sources that founded that method (5-7). Do not include the in-class chapter in your bibliography. In a 30-45 minute presentation, share your research findings with the class, teach the scholarly approach, and engage class discussion about the approach. Do not simply summarize the in-class chapter in your presentation; instead, demonstrate your synthesized understanding of the research into the critical methodology.

Due Date

The 10 source annotated bibliography is due in GeorgiaVIEW > Course Work > Assignments > Theory Presentation on the day you are assigned to teach the theory. Your project will be graded in terms of annotated bibliography quality (range of overviews and theoretical sources, quality of annotations), presentation quality, and understanding of the interpretive approach.

Sign Up

Sign up here for one Book Review, one Theory Presentation, and one Critical Application.  Make sure that each of the three major assignments of the regular semester (Book Review, Theory Presentation, and Critical Application) are each about 3-4 weeks apart.

Critical Application

In addition to researching and presenting on a interpretive theory you will also research and teach a literary work from the perspective of a critical approach: New Criticism, formalism, reader-response theory, structuralism, Marxism, psychoanlysis, feminism, queer theory, poststructuralism, postmodernism, or ecocriticism. After signing up for a scholarly method, read the corresponding chapter from Selden, Widdowson, and Brooker's, A Reader's Guide to Contemporary Literary Theory. Compose a 10 source annotated bibliography comprised of critical sources (scholarly journal articles, books, book chapters) interpreting the literary text from the assigned critical lens. Lead class discussion of the literary work for 30-45 minutes by employing the critical approach and using your bibliography to inform your teaching.

Text Selection

On Tuesday, September 10, students will suggest three possible texts from three different genres (poetry, fiction, drama, film, television, graphic literature) and historical periods with which to complete the scholarship application; and the class will finalize the texts based on variety of genre and historical period.

Due Date

The 10 source annotated bibliography is due in GeorgiaVIEW > Course Work > Assignments > Scholarship Application on the day you are assigned to teach the work. Your project will be graded in terms of annotated bibliography quality (range of critical sources, quality of annotations), understanding of the critical approach, and application of the critical approach, and teaching of the literary work

Sign Up

Sign up here for one Book Review, one Theory Presentation, and one Critical Application.  Make sure that each of the three major assignments of the regular semester (Book Review, Theory Presentation, and Critical Application) are each about 3-4 weeks apart.

Research Proposal

You have reviewed a book about the history of the book, the history of criticism, textual scholarship, or critical approaches to literature. You have researched the textual history of a work of literature. You have presented on an interpretive method; and you have applied a critical theory to a work of literature. Your final assignment is a research proposal for a masters thesis, a long journal article, or a funded research project, such as a fellowship, grant, or scholarship.

1. In class on Tuesday, October 22, share a topic for instructor approval.
2. In class on Tuesday, November 12, conference with your professor. For the 5-10 minute meeting, prepare a 10 source working bibliography composed of both theoretical sources that ground your scholarly methodology (3-5 theoretical sources) and critical sources that interpret your selected literary works (5-8 critical sources).
3. In class on either Tuesday, November 26 or Tuesday, December 3, share your proposal-in progress with the class in a 10-20 minute presentation and receive feedback. Sign up for your presentation day here.
4. On Tuesday, December 10, submit to the Research Project GeorgiaVIEW assignment dropbox a 3-4 page thesis/article/funding proposal that articulates the topic's significance, originality, and critical methodology; poses research questions; reviews the research in the annotated bibliography; and offers tentative conclusions based on the preliminary research of the annotated bibliography, followed by a 20 source annotated bibliography (no less than 5 theoretical sources; 10-15 critical sources). PapersOWL also offers thesis proposal guidelines.