The Handbook to Literary Research

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The Handbook to Literary Research The Handbook to Literary Research Edited by Delia da Sousa Correa and W.R. Owens The Handbook to Literary Research is a practical guide for students embarking on postgraduate work in Literary Studies. It introduces and explains research techniques, methodologies and approaches to information resources, paying careful attention to the differences between countries and institutions, and providing a range of key examples. This fully updated second edition is divided into five sections which cover: • Tools of the trade – a brand new chapter outlining how to make the most of literary resources; • Textual scholarship and book history – explains key concepts and varia- tions in editing, publishing and bibliography; • Issues and approaches in literary research – presents a critical overview of theoretical approaches essential to literary studies; • The dissertation – demonstrates how to approach, plan and write this important research exercise; • Glossary – provides comprehensive explanations of key terms, and a checklist of resources. Packed with useful tips and exercises and written by scholars with extensive experience as teachers and researchers in the field, this volume is the ideal handbook for those beginning postgraduate research in literature. Delia da Sousa Correa is Senior Lecturer in English at The Open University, UK. W.R. Owens is Professor of English Literature at The Open University, UK. Contributors: Susan Bassnett, Delia da Sousa Correa, Simon Eliot, Suman Gupta, Sara Haslam, David Johnson, M.A. Katritzky, Derek Neale, W.R. Owens, and Shafquat Towheed. The Handbook to Literary Research Edited by Delia da Sousa Correa and W.R. Owens First published 1998 by Routledge, written and produced by The Open University This edition 2010 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada by Routledge 270 Madison Ave, New York, NY 10016 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2009. To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s collection of thousands of eBooks please go to www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk. © The Open University 1998, 2010 First edition published 1998 Second edition published 2010 All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data A catalog record for this book has been requested ISBN 0-203-87333-5 Master e-book ISBN ISBN10: 0-415-49732-9 (hbk) ISBN10: 0-415-48500-2 (pbk) ISBN10: 0-203-87333-5 (ebk) ISBN13: 978-0-415-49732-9 (hbk) ISBN13: 978-0-415-48500-5 (pbk) ISBN13: 978-0-203-87333-5 (ebk) Contents Contributors vii 1 Introduction to the Handbook 1 Delia da Sousa Correa and W.R. OWens PART 1 Tools of the trade 7 2 Tools and techniques for literary research: using online and printed sources 9 Shafquat TowheeD PART 2 Textual scholarship and book history 37 3 Bibliography 39 Simon Eliot 4 History of the book 49 Simon Eliot 5 Editing literary texts 69 W.R. OWens PART 3 Issues and approaches in literary research 87 6 Institutional histories of literary disciplines 89 Suman Gupta 7 The place of theory in literary disciplines 109 Suman Gupta 8 Literary research and interdisciplinarity 131 DAvid Johnson vi Contents 9 Literary research and other media 148 Delia da Sousa CorreA, with contributions by Sara Haslam and DeReK Neale 10 Literary research and translation 167 Susan Bassnett PART 4 Planning and completing a research project 185 11 Planning, writing and presenting a dissertation or thesis 187 W.R. OWens PART 5 Reference 205 12 Glossary 207 W.R. OWens 13 Checklist of libraries, print, online and other research resources 224 M.A. Katritzky Index 250 Contributors Delia da Sousa Correa is Senior Lecturer in English at The Open University. She is the author of George Eliot, Music and Victorian Culture (Palgrave Macmillan, 2003) and editor of The Nineteenth- Century Novel: Realisms (Routledge/Open University, 2000) and of Phrase and Subject: Studies in Literature and Music (Legenda/MHRA, 2006). W.R. Owens is Professor of English Literature at The Open University. Among his publications are editions of works by John Bunyan, including The Pilgrim’s Progress (2003), and, jointly with P.N. Furbank, four books on Defoe. He is joint General Editor of The Works of Daniel Defoe (44 vols, Pickering & Chatto, 2000–2009). Susan Bassnett is Professor of Comparative Literature at the University of Warwick. Recent books include Exchanging Lives (2002), a collection of poems and translations; Sylvia Plath: An Introduction to the Poetry (2005); The Translator as Writer (2006) with Peter Bush; Ted Hughes (2008); and Translation in Global News (2008) with Esperança Bielsa. She also writes for several national newspapers. Simon Eliot is Professor of the History of the Book at the School of Advanced Study, University of London, and Director of the London Rare Books School. He has published on quantitative book history, publishing history, the history of reading, and library history. He is General Editor of the new multi- volume History of Oxford University Press. Suman Gupta is Professor of Literature and Cultural History at The Open University. Recent books include: The Theory and Reality of Democracy: A Case Study in Iraq (2006); Social Constructionist Identity Politics and Literary Studies (2007); Globalization and Literature (2008); and a co- edited volume with Tope Omoniyi, The Cultures of Economic Migration (2007). viii Contributors Sara Haslam is Lecturer in English at The Open University. Among her authored works are Fragmenting Modernism: Ford Madox Ford, the Novel and the Great War (Manchester University Press, 2002); Life Writing (Routledge, 2008) with Derek Neale; and essays on ford, Thomas Hardy and modernism. Edited works include Ford’s England and the English (Carcanet, 2003). David Johnson is Senior Lecturer in english at The Open University. His publications include Shakespeare and South Africa (Oxford University Press, 1996), Jurisprudence: A South African Perspective (Butterworths Press, 2001) as principal author; and A Historical Companion to Postcolonial Literatures in English (edinburgh/Columbia University Press 2005) as co- editor. He is series editor with Ania Loomba of the Edinburgh University Press series Postcolonial Literary Studies. M.A. Katritzky is Senior Research Fellow in Theatre Studies at The Open University. Recent publications include The Art of Commedia: A Study in the Commedia Dell’arte 1560–1620 with Special Reference to the Visual Records (Rodopi, 2006); and Women, Medicine and Theatre 1500–1750: Literary Mountebanks and Performing Quacks (Ashgate, 2007). Derek Neale is Lecturer in Creative Writing at The Open University. He is editor and co- author of A Creative Writing Handbook (A&C Black/Open University, 2009) and co- author of Life Writing and Writing Fiction (both Routledge/Open University, 2008). Shafquat Towheed is Lecturer in English at The Open University. He is the editor of The Correspondence of Edith Wharton and Macmillan, 1901–1930 (Palgrave Macmillan, 2007); New Readings in the Literature of British India, c.1780–1947 (Ibidem Verlag, 2007); and the Broadview edition of Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Sign of Four (Broadview, 2010). 1 Introduction to the Handbook Delia da Sousa Correa and W.R. Owens Undertaking any programme of postgraduate study or piece of independent research work in literature is both an exciting and a daunting prospect. The aim of this Handbook is to make the whole process of research more exciting and less daunting – and, we might add, more productive and more rewarding. How are we to do this? • First, by introducing you to the range of research skills and methods needed by anyone who wants to do the job effectively and productively. • Second, by offering you a broad survey of the wide variety of intellectual endeavour that now characterises the study of literature at postgraduate level. • Third, by providing advice and guidance on what is frequently the most tricky (and most postponed) part of research – writing up the dissertation or thesis. • Fourth, by giving you a substantial quantity of useful and usable informa- tion in the form of a glossary and a large bibliographical Checklist. Although you could certainly gain something by dipping into the book, you may well find it better to start by reading Parts 1–4 in sequence as they build steadily from learning about research resources to writing the final dissertation. The Handbook is designed to provide guidance on basic techniques for anyone wishing to undertake literary research. In practice, the skills and knowledge required to complete an MA successfully are the same as those needed by stu- dents beginning a research degree (an MPhil or PhD) and, indeed, by anyone in or outside higher education wishing to pursue independent research in liter- ature. There are, of course, significant differences in the scope of the projects 2 D. da Sousa Correa and W.R. Owens to which you apply these skills at different levels, and you will find a useful dis- cussion of the transition from a Master’s degree to a PhD in Chapter 11 on ‘Planning, writing and presenting a dissertation or thesis’. The chapters in the Handbook have certain characteristics in common: they all include the identification of key ideas and texts within their subject; they all involve discussion of the significant developments in their field; they all discuss the specific nature of research within their subject; and they all include a set of ‘Questions and exercises’ designed to get you to practise the knowledge and skills to which you have been introduced in each chapter.
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