ENG-L 460:
Modern Literary Archives
Tu Th 2:30 PM – 3:45 PM The Ellison Room, The Lilly Library
Christoph Irmscher
www.christophirmscher.com
Office: Ballantine
Hall 417
phone: (812) 339-9826
(home) or (443)-622-3277 (cell)
Office
hours: W 3-4 and by appointment
Course description:
Have you ever wondered about what it would be like to work not with
someone else's edition of a novel, a work of poetry, or a play but with the
actual source, the manuscript or typescript handled by the author him- or
herself? Have you ever asked yourself how your argument in a term paper might
be made stronger by referring to an unpublished letter, an early draft of a
poem, an annotated book once owned by your author? Or do you just enjoy
spending time in libraries or museums? If any of this applies to you, then this
is the course for you. Manuscripts are a literary critic's bread-and-butter;
this course will introduce you, in hands-on fashion, to the practical and
ethical principles of working with modern literary archives. We will draw
exclusively on original materials from the Lilly's collections, from the papers
of such outstanding writers as William Wordsworth, John Keats, Edgar Allan Poe,
William Carlos Williams, Virginia Woolf, Sylvia Plath, W. Somerset Maugham,
Kurt Vonnegut, and others.
Some of the topics and skills to be covered might include the
"archeology" of literary texts (i. e., all that comes before the
"fair copy" of a manuscript, such as drafts, notebooks, reading
notes, and letters); exercises in deciphering handwriting; principles and types
of textual transcription; prepublication
documents (annotated and fair copies) as well as publication-related documents
(page proofs); the nature of the literary archive or collection; the use of
finding aids in libraries, and so forth.
Course requirements:.
This is a practicum, in which, after some weeks of introductory
conversations, I will assist you in your work. Initially we will meet
and do some practical exercises with material I have selected. You are expected to prepare for these
meetings carefully by visiting the Lilly regularly. I will make myself available—in the Lilly
Reading Room—on most mornings to be on hand to help you. Make sure that you come to class ready to
share your notes and/or editions. When you discuss your own work, you are
required to make copies of your findings or post the results of your work in
advance of the meeting to the course blog.
I will meet with you early in the semester (always
at the Lilly) to determine what project you might be interested in. I will ask you to describe your work during
the semester in regular, brief updates to be posted to the course website (http://lillymodernarchives.blogspot.com). I expect about 4 in the course of the
semester. There is no prescribed length
or deadline. Share a problem, an
editorial decision you feel you need to make, a discovery, an epiphany or a
disappointment you had.
By the end of the course (05/01), I will expect you to have produced a
short critical edition of an original manuscript from your field of interest (5-10
pages) using your archive of choice from the Lilly’s collections as well as
short essay commenting on the archive and your editorial practice. The essay
needs to explain the principle behind your edition, comment on choices you had
to make, as well as the opportunities that you see your edition offers. You may choose to present your final edition
in traditional print format or as a
digital document. There is no textbook for this
class. Regular attendance and
participation in our meetings as well as posting to the blog counts for 30 % of
the grade. Presenting your project to
the class will make up another 30%; your final project will account for the
final 40%
WEEK 1
01/08 Introduction: What are
manuscripts? Examples of manuscripts
01/10 Preliminary exercises: Sylvia
Plath, “Finisterre” or “The Surgeon at 2 A.M.” (Plath Mss.). I will be available Wednesday morning to help
you with the material. Compare the
autograph with the printed text and write down what you observe.
WEEK 2
01/15 An unpublished autograph: Stephen
Spender, Poems
Written Abroad.
Spender Mss. Each student should
pick one poem from the collection, transcribe it, and post it to the course
blog. Don’t worry if the same poem is
picked by several. Describe the entire
autograph as carefully as possible.
01/17 Spender, cont.
WEEK 3
01/22 Lewis Carroll, Letters and
Drafts for “Sylvie and Bruno.” Additional
reading: Kelemen, “Why Study Textual Editing
and Criticism” (course blog)
01/ 24 Multiple Drafts: Theodore
Dreiser, Dawn
WEEK 4
01/29 Dreiser, Dawn
01/31 From Autograph to Print: Virginia
Woolf, Mrs.
Dalloway
Additional Reading: Kelemen, “Text
Technologies and Textual Transmissions” (course blog)
WEEK 5
02/05 Cherry Williams, Curator
of Manuscripts
02/07 Mrs. Dalloway cont.
WEEK 6
02/12 Working with
Archives: Editing the Sarah Helen
Whitman Correspondence
02/14 Sarah Helen Whitman, cont.;
Visit Craig Simpson, Archivist
WEEK 7
02/19 Working with Archives: The
Florence Deshon Mss.
02/21 Visit Jim Canary, Conservator at the Lilly
WEEK 8
02/26 Deshon Mss., cont.
02/28 Erika Jenns, on the Don Belton Mss.
WEEK 9
03/05 Projects Michelle Gottschlich on Karin Stephen
03/07 Projects Anjona Ghosh on Ian Fleming; Deborra Sanders on Virginia Woolf
WEEK 10
03/12 and 14 SPRING BREAK
WEEK 11
03/19 Projects Ava Dickerson, on Charles Baudelaire; Bernadette Patino on Frank Crone
03/21 Projects Megan Jones on Sacco &Vanzetti
WEEK 12
03/26 Project
03/28 Projects Ariel Hunt on William Carlos Williams; Ly Nguyen on James Baldwin
WEEK 13
04/02 Projects Morgan Burris on Sylvia Plath; Alicia Scott on Shulfeldt Ms.
04/04 Projects Elizabeth Pappas on Kurt Vonnegut; Steven Whyte
WEEK 14
04/09 Rebecca Ferber on Scott Russell Sanders
04/11 Instructor on John Brown
WEEK 15
04/16 Scott Russell Sanders visit
04/18 Audrey Snider on The Wizard of Oz; Aaron Denton on Carver
04/18 Audrey Snider on The Wizard of Oz; Aaron Denton on Carver
WEEK 16
Individual Meetings with
Participants. Definitely no class on Tuesday!
04/25 wrap-up
05/01 Submission of
Final Version of Project
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