Resource Author
SchwartzResource Description
Connection Paper Assignment
Write a “connection paper” on any of our four main texts in which you make an argument based on primary source material that you find in the Harry Ransom Center. Often in literary studies, texts seem to come to us in a vacuum, and we forget that the now-famous authors we read in this class were once struggling with drafts and ideas just as you and I do. The purpose of this assignment is to get you to roll up your sleeves and dive into the world of primary research. It will help you breathe more life back into these texts by getting a thicker sense of the context in which they were written. You will then write a short, 2-3 page argument explaining how what you found enhances, expands upon, or even changes your reading of the text itself. It’s really that simple! The paper is due Wednesday, March 24.
It Pays Not to Mind Your Own Business…
This should be a fun assignment. Think of it as your chance to play literary detective or archaeologist. Although there are many ways to approach this assignment, you might begin by developing a greater sense of your author, the historical context, or the editions of the text itself.
1. Author-centered: Be nosy and snoop around, you never know what juicy tidbits you might discover by reading letters, journals, or other writings that your author generated. Think of it as your chance to earn credit by eavesdropping.
2. Historical context: What other kinds of works were written in the period? Pick something strange or unusual—say a contemporary magazine that your author had read, or even things that his/her sister or cousin was reading. You can look at the way the author read an editor’s comments on a galley proof. You can read reviews of the text in local newspapers or magazines of the period. What were the issues the reviewers focused on? How are they similar to or different from the issues we raised or that occurred to you in you reading? Does the text mention something obscure? Look it up. Does the text mention a place? Look at maps from the period. Does the text allude to another text? Look it up. For example, you may want to take a look at some of the sermons referred to by Sterne in TS. You may want to take a look at some of his own sermons. How does your understanding of these issues in other representations enhance your reading of the text?
3. Bibliography/Editions: What does the paper feel, look, smell like? What kind of ink or pen was your author using? Was it written in pencil? What do these material insights tell you about the conditions under which your author was writing, and how do they change your reading of the text? Are there multiple versions or editions of the text? Look at the different printings. Did anything change in the reprinting? Are there chapters included in some versions, but not others? Why or why not? Do we have multiple drafts or scripts? If so, are there words that were crossed out in earlier drafts? How might the text have been different if they had been included? Where was the text originally printed? Was it serialized or did it appear as a book? How might the edition affect/effect its readership? How much did the edition cost? Who had the dispensable income to buy it and the luxury time to read it? What might such insights tell you about the intended audience, and how is it different from or similar to the audiences that tend to read the text now?
Be as creative and inventive in your explorations as possible—the sky and the HRC’s holdings should be your only limits.
Remember that these are just a few ideas to get you started, so feel free to come up with a different approach or set of questions.
The important thing about this paper is to use it as an opportunity both to do some archival work and to get a greater sense of the context in order to situate a text and the author who wrote it. If you’re still stuck, come see me in office hours.
Requirements
* You are required to make an argument, complete with a thesis, connecting one of the texts we read with at least one primary material located in the HRC. More than one source is welcome but not require.
* Your argument should demonstrate how the materials enhance your reading/understanding of the text.
* Your paper, as always, must be MLA-formatted and include a Works Cited.
* As usual, you will be submitting your essay electronically.
Word to the Wise
* Archival work depends as much on the archives as it does on the researcher. It can be both really frustrating and incredibly satisfying.
* Allow yourself the liberty to be lulled into the mystery by making sure you set aside enough time for the assignment--a few hours for your “digging” and a few more for digesting and writing!
* Be prepared not to find exactly what you’re looking for, and be open to serendipity.
* Since this will be your longest essay next to the final essay and since you will be doing primary research, you may want to choose to write on the text on which you plan to write for your final essay. In other words, the secret to doing good work is to build on earlier work.
* I’ve included some call numbers for things I thought you might find interesting to look at, but the list is by no means encompassing, so you are invited to find and write about other materials. A good way to start is to do a keyword search on the UTNetCat using the “location” of the HRC as a limiter for your search.
* You have probably noticed that this assignment may entail a Historical Contextualist/New Historicist approach. You may want to re-read Ch. 6 of Texts and Contexts to refamiliarize yourselves with these theories' strategies and assumptions.
* You have also probably noticed that this assignment involves bibliographical and textual criticism. You may want to re-read Ch. 1 of Williams and Abbott's An Introduction to Bibliographical and Textual Studies (see packet).
* Look over the notes you took during the HRC presentation. They’re a great place to start brainstorming for a topic!
Very Abbreviated Rare Materials Bibliography
The Tempest
The tempest, or, The enchanted island a comedy, as it is now acted at His Highness the Duke of York's theatre. / Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616 / London / 1978(1676)
MICROFILM WING REEL 877:25 Humanities Research Center USE IN LIBRARY ONLY
Online version may be available by searching Early English Books Online http://wwwlib.umi.com/eebo
The tempest, or, The enchanted island a comedy : as it is now acted at Their Majesties theatre in Dorset-Garden. / Dryden, John, 1631-1700 / London / 1966(1690)
MICROFILM WING REEL 297:39 Humanities Research Center USE IN LIBRARY ONLY
Online version may be available by searching Early English Books Online http://wwwlib.umi.com/eebo
The mock-tempest, or, The enchanted castle acted at the Theatre Royal. / Duffett, Thomas. / London / 1966(1675)
MICROFILM WING REEL 209:6 Humanities Research Center USE IN LIBRARY ONLY
Online version may be available by searching Early English Books Online http://wwwlib.umi.com/eebo
The tempest. An opera. / Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616 / London / 1756
HRC WM G193 756T Humanities Research Center USE IN LIBRARY ONLY
The tempest, : a play; by W. Shakspeare. ; With prefatory remarks. The only edition existing which is faithfully marked with the stage / Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616 / London. / 1823
PR 3540 A73 1824 Humanities Research Center USE IN LIBRARY ONLY
Tristram Shandy
Letters supposed to have been written by Yorick and Eliza. : In two volumes. / Combe, William, 1742-1823 / London / 1779
PR 3359 C5 L488 1779 Humanities Research Center USE IN LIBRARY ONLY
Letters of the late Rev. Mr. Laurence Sterne, to his most intimate friends. : With a fragment in the manner of Rabelais. To which are p / Sterne, Laurence, 1713-1768 / London / 1775
PR 3716 A4 1775 Humanities Research Center USE IN LIBRARY ONLY
Tristram Shandy. / Sterne, Laurence, 1713-1768 / New York / 1944
PR 3714 T7 1944 HRC ARM Armed Services Collection USE IN LIBRARY ONLY
The life, travels, and adventures of Christopher Wagstaff, gentleman, grandfather to Tristram Shandy. Originally published in the latte / Dunton, John, 1659-1733 / London / 1762
HRC AK D923 691VB Humanities Research Center USE IN LIBRARY ONLY
The life and opinions of Tristram Shandy, gentleman and A sentimental journey through France and Italy. / Sterne, Laurence, 1713-1768 / London / 1900
PR 3714 T7 1931 Humanities Research Center USE IN LIBRARY ONLY
The life and opinions of Tristram Shandy, gentleman and A sentimental journey through France and Italy. / Sterne, Laurence, 1713-1768 / London / 1900
PR 3714 T7 1924 Humanities Research Center USE IN LIBRARY ONLY
The life and opinions of Tristram Shandy, gentleman, by Laurence Sterne. / Sterne, Laurence, 1713-1768 / (London) / 1931(1931)
PR 3714 T7 F31 HRC MOR Christopher Morley Coll. USE IN LIBRARY ONLY
The life & opinions of Tristram Shandy, gentleman. / Sterne, Laurence, 1713-1768 / Waltham Saint Lawren / 1929-1930
PR 3714 T7 1929 HRC KNOPF Alfred/Blanche Knopf Lib. USE IN LIBRARY ONLY
Request at HRC 5.200 or call 471-9119 a day in advance for retrieval from remote location
The life and opinions of Tristram Shandy, gentleman. In three volumes. / Sterne, Laurence, 1713-1768 / London / 1894
PR 3714 T7 D94 Humanities Research Center USE IN LIBRARY ONLY
Frankenstein
Frankenstein; or, The modern Prometheus. : In three volumes. / Shelley, Mary Wollstonecraft, 1797-1851 / London / 1818
WOLFF 6280 Humanities Research Center USE IN LIBRARY ONLY
Frankenstein, or, The modern Prometheus. / Shelley, Mary Wollstonecraft, 1797-1851 / Philadelphia / 1833
PR 5397 F7 1833 Humanities Research Center USE IN LIBRARY ONLY
Harriet & Mary; being the relations between Percy Bysshe Shelley, Harriet Shelley, Mary Shelley, and Thomas Jefferson Hogg, as shown in / Shelley, Percy Bysshe, 1792-1822 / (London) / 1944
821 SH4B2 Humanities Research Center USE IN LIBRARY ONLY
Proserpine ; & Midas : two unpublished mythological dramas. / Shelley, Mary Wollstonecraft, 1797-1851 / London / 1922
PR 5397 P7 1922 Humanities Research Center USE IN LIBRARY ONLY
The letters of Mary W. Shelley. / Shelley, Mary Wollstonecraft, 1797-1851 / Norman / 1944
PR 5398 A42 Humanities Research Center USE IN LIBRARY ONLY
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
Joyce annotated : notes for Dubliners and A portrait of the artist as a young man. / Gifford, Don. / 2nd ed., rev. and en / Berkeley / 1982
PR 6019 O9 Z5335 1982 Humanities Research Center USE IN LIBRARY ONLY
Stephen Hero, a part of the first draft of 'A portrait of the artist as a young man'. / Joyce, James, 1882-1941 / Rev. ed. / London / 1961
PR 6019 O9 P63 1961 HRC-TA Theatre Arts Collection USE IN LIBRARY ONLY
A portrait of the artist as a young man. / Joyce, James, 1882-1941 / London / 1917
PR 6019 O9 P6 1917 Humanities Research Center USE IN LIBRARY ONLY
Stephen D.; a play in two acts. / Leonard, Hugh. / (New York) / 1968
PR 6062 E7 S7 1968 HRC-TA Theatre Arts Collection USE IN LIBRARY ONLY