SYLLABUS


                     (AJ34130) Constructing the Book, Reconstructing the Text


                                             Fall 2024

                    Meetings in Room G25 on the following dates, at 2:00 p.m.:

                          4^th October, 8^th November, and 29^th November

                               Student presentations: 13^th December


                     doc. Michael Matthew Kaylor, Ph.D. (kaylor@phil.muni.cz)

                         doc. Mgr. Tomáš Kačer, Ph.D. (kacer@phil.muni.cz)



Each session will consist of a discussion of editorial and textological issues related to the
assigned readings, which serve as examples and illustrations of a particular editorial issue
related to a critical handling of a literary text.

Then, students will present their 3-5 minute contributions, in which they will apply the seminar
issues for consideration (questions pertinent to each seminar) to their area of study (work of
literature, author, period, genre, and so on). In their contributions, students should illustrate a
particular problem, editorial issue, or consideration of the traditional handling of one or more
editorial situations in regard to the student’s own dissertation topic. Given the detailed nature
of the topics covered during this course, these discussions should be as concrete as possible. We
are not looking for vague (i.e., general) engagements, but something that displays the student’s
understanding of and ability to handle issues of editorship.




Friday, 4^th October: The Rules of Art

Read and watch the following:

·         Pierre Bourdieu, The Rules of Art (Maldon, MA: Polity Press, 1996), pp. 1-46
(“Prologue”); pp. 47-173 (“Part I”)

·         Genius (2016), dir. M. Grandage (especially for the fun of it)


Consider the following issues (be ready to speak to your colleagues for about 3-5 minutes about
your examples):

·         What are the sociological aspects (namely, the literary field and its dynamics) of your
area of study (author, period, genre)?

·         What are some of the most crucial editorial issues relevant to your area of studies?


Assignment for the presentations:

·         You will receive a copy of the novella The Cult of the Purple Rose: A Phase of Harvard
Life (1902) by Shirley Everton Johnson. This will be a plain text, which you will start working on
as editors (in groups). At the end of the semester, you will present the result (an edited text)
and discuss it in class.




Friday, 8^th November: Walt Whitman’s “Drum-Taps”

Read the following:

·         Harold W. Blodgett and Sculley Bradley, edited, Walt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass
(Comprehensive Reader’s Edition) (New York: New York University Press, 1965), pp. xxvii-liii
(“Introduction”); 279-327 (“Drum-Taps”)

·         Ed Folsom, “Appearing in Print: Illustrations of the Self in Leaves of Grass,” in Ezra
Greenspan, edited, The Cambridge Companion to Walt Whitman (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,
1995), pp. 135-165

·         Kenneth M. Price, “Electronic Scholarly Editions,” Chapter 24 in A Companion to Digital
Literary Studies, edited by Susan Schreibman and Ray Siemens (Oxford: Blackwell, 2008)
<http://www.digitalhumanities.org/companionDLS>



Friday, 6^th December: William Shakespeare’s Hamlet (Q1, Q2 and F1)

Read the following:

·         John Jowett, Shakespeare and Text, Oxford Shakespeare Topics series (Oxford: Oxford
University Press, 2007)

·         Ann Thompson and Neil Taylor, edited, William Shakespeare’s Hamlet, The Arden
Shakespeare, Third Series, pp. 74-94 (“The Composition of Hamlet”)

o   Optional: ibid., pp. 139-164 (“1.1” of Hamlet Q2 (1604-5))

·         Ann Thompson and Neil Taylor, edited, William Shakespeare’s Hamlet, the Texts of 1603 and
1623, The Arden Shakespeare, Third Series, pp. 1-12 (“The relationship of this volume to the Arden
Hamlet”)

o   Optional: ibid., pp. 41-53 (“Scene 1” of Hamlet Q1 (1603)); pp. 173-185 (“1.1” of Hamlet F1
(1623))


o   Recommended: Bruce R. Smith, editor, The Cambridge Guide to the World of Shakespeare, vol. 1
(Cambridge: CUP 2016), pp. 323-373 (“Printing, Publishing, Textuality”)


Consider the following issues:

·         How is textual history and the history of editorship pertinent to your area of study?

·         How do you handle “versions”?



Friday, 13^th December: Student Presentations and Discussion

Discussion of the class’s handling of the apparatus for the novella The Cult of the Purple Rose: A
Phase of Harvard Life (1902) by Shirley Everton Johnson. (For this project, the class will have
already been divided into groups.)

 You will prepare, in a group, an edited version of the novella. You will track your changes and
explain why you decided to perform them. You will need to categorize your editorial activities and
explain your editorial choices for handling individual categories. You will write footnotes or
endnotes (if you decide to create notes), explain and discuss your editorial changes.