Bibliography and Literary Research

 

It would make sense for you to start reading Stop Stealing Sheep immediately, since you will have only three weeks until we discuss it.

Week 1 (beginning 25 August): What is a book?

General discussion of the aims, methods, and organization of the course, and some tips on how to work effectively

	Tuesday:  Orientation in Harner
	Thursday:  Read Greetham on manuscripts, pp. 47-75
		**Read diagonally! Take notes! Mark up your text!**
		Get colophon analysis assignment

Week 2 (beginning 1 September):

	Book history
	Tuesday's class will meet in Bakeless 307
	Read Greetham on printed books (77-147)
	Tuesday:  Colophon analyses due

Week 3 (beginning 8 September):

	Typography
	Read Greetham on paleography (diagonally) and typography (169-270)
	Be prepared to discuss Stop Stealing Sheep
	Tuesday: Visit Appletree Alley, a private press in Lewisburg, PA

Week 4 (beginning 15 September):

	Preservation
	Tuesday:  Visit Prof. Hales' book bindery
	Thursday:  Slow Fires:  On the Preservation of the Human Record
		Get typography analysis assignment

Week 5 (beginning 22 September):

	The modern book
	Visit Bloomsburg Craftsmen to see a modern printing plant and paperback bindery line
	Tuesday:  Typography analysis due
	Thursday: Get library exercise

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Week 6 (beginning 29 September): What is a publication?

	What is literary research? (kinds of sources)
	Tuesday:  Library exercise due
		Discuss annotated bibliography project
		Greetham on Enumerative Bibliography 13-46, diagonally)
		Donald C. Baker, "The Date of Mankind"
	Thursday: Bruce Harkness, "Bibliography and the Novelistic Fallacy"

Week 7 (beginning 7 October):

	Why do literary research? (perpetual obsolescence and shifting canons)
		James Thorpe, "The Aesthetics of Textual Criticism"
	Thursday:  No class

Week 8 (beginning 14 October):

	How do you go about literary research? (serendipity and method 
						in the library and on the Web)
	Tuesday and Thursday:  Library work, including 
			The Oxford English Dictionary
	Thursday:  First version of annotated bibliography due
Week 9 (beginning 20 October):

	"Books" on the 'net and ownership of information
	Thursday:  Get Web exercise

Week 10 (beginning 27 October):

	What is an edition? (paper, electronic, and hypertext)
	Tuesday:  Eugene Vinaver, Malory, "The Knight-Prisoner"
	Thursday:  Vinaver, "The Method of Editing" and "Caxton's Preface"
		Web exercise due

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Week 11 (beginning 3 November): What is a text? 

	Editing theory and practice
	Tuesday:  Final version of annotated bibliography due
	Thursday:  Greetham on textual bibliography (271-94)
		Get library exercise

Week 12 (beginning 10 November): 

	Reliability in editing
	R. C. Bald, "Evidence and Inference in Bibliography"
	Tuesday:  Library exercise due

Week 13 (beginning 17 November): 

	Editing rationales
	W. W. Greg, "The Rationale of Copy-Text"
	Greetham on textual criticism (295-346; 297-313 diagonally)
	Thursday:  Get library exercise

Week 14 (beginning 24 November): 

	So how should we edit?
	Greetham on scholarly editing (347-72)
	Tuesday:  Library exercise due
	Thursday:  No class

Week 15 (beginning 1 December):

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Rev 8/97