The Cambridge Companion to Textual Scholarship (Cambridge Companions to Literature)

As more and more of our cultural heritage migrates into digital form and as increasing amounts of literature and art are created within digital environments, it becomes more important than ever before for us to understand how the medium affects the text. The expert contributors to this volume provide a clear, engrossing and accessible insight into how the texts we read and study are created, shaped and transmitted to us. They outline the theory behind studying texts in many different forms and offer case studies demonstrating key methodologies underlying the vital processes of editing and presenting texts. Through their multiple perspectives they demonstrate the centrality of textual scholarship to current literary studies of all kinds and express the sheer intellectual excitement of a crucial scholarly discipline entering a new phase of its existence. As more and more of our cultural heritage migrates into digital form and as increasing amounts of literature and art are created within digital environments, it becomes more important than ever before for us to understand how the medium affects the text. The expert contributors to this volume provide insight into how the texts we read and study are created, shaped and transmitted to us. They outline the theory behind studying texts in many different forms and offer case studies demonstrating key methodologies underlying the vital processes of editing and presenting texts. Through their multiple perspectives they demonstrate the centrality of textual scholarship to current literary studies of all kinds and express the intellectual excitement of a scholarly discipline entering a new phase of its existence. --From publisher's description Introduction: Textual scholarship in the age of media consciousness / Neil Fraistat and Julia Flanders A history of textual scholarship / David Greetham Anglo-American editorial theory / Kathryn Sutherland Continental editorial theory / Geert Lernout Late twentieth-century Shakespeares / Hans Walter Gabler Apparatus, text, interface: how to read a printed critical edition / Paul Eggert The politics of textual scholarship / Michelle R. Warren Fearful asymmetry / Random Cloud What is a book? / Roger Chartier and Peter Stallybrass Orality / John D. Niles Manuscript textuality / Michael G. Sargent Picture criticism: textual studies and the image / Kari Kraus Track changes: textual scholarship and the challenge of the born digital / Matthew G. Kirschenbaum and Doug Reside Coda: why digital textual scholarship matters. CONTENTS ILLUSTRATIONS LIST OF CONTRIBUTORS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Introduction. Textual scholarship in the age of A history of textual scholarship Anglo-American editorial theory Continental editorial theory Late twentieth-century Shakespeares Apparatus, text, interface. How to read a printed critical edition The politics of textual scholarship What is a book? Orality Manuscript textuality Picture criticism. Textual studies and the image Tracking the changes. Textual scholarship and the challenge of the born digital Coda. Why digital textual scholarship matters; or, philology in a new key GUIDE TO FURTHER READING INDEX In the digital age, it has become more important than ever before to understand how the medium affects the text. The expert contributors to this volume provide a clear, engrossing and accessible insight into how the texts we read and study are created, shaped and transmitted to us.