Explore the following list of introductory terms which have been paired with relevant scholarly articles as a gateway to the study of literary archives.
Avant-texte refers to the group of pre-publication writings, notably sketches, drafts, manuscripts, typescripts, proofs and correspondence. In a modern context, the implication of digital technology upon the writing process has led to new areas of study of avant-texte materials.
Van Hulle, D. (2013). Hypertext and avant‐texte in twentieth‐century and contemporary literature. In S. Schreibman & R. Siemens (Eds.) A Companion to Digital Literary Studies (pp. 139–159). John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781405177504.ch7
Bost, S. (2015). Messy archives and materials that matter: Making knowledge with the Gloria Evangelina Anzaldua papers. PMLA, 130(3), 615–630. https://doi.org/10.1632/pmla.2015.130.3.615
Genetic Criticism is an approach to the study of literature, first developed in France in the 1970s, which focuses upon the analysis of a writer's manuscripts, drafts, notes, sketches, proofs and variants - the body of work which precedes publication. This approach values the reconstruction of the writing process over the final publication.
Davis, O. (2002). The Author at Work in Genetic Criticism. Paragraph, 25(1), 92–106. https://doi.org/10.3366/jsp.2002.25.1.92
Textual criticism is a technique of literary studies in which the original form of a text is sought to be discerned from the variant forms.
Textual criticism. (2020). In Britannica Online Academic Edition. http://academic.eb.com/levels/collegiate/article/108631
Manuscript studies includes a diverse field of sub-disciplines such as paleography - the study of handwritten scripts and codicology - the study of the physical properties of a manuscript. Focusing on the manuscript as a material object includes examining the type of paper, ink, printing format, font, layout and other physical elements. In addition to studying the manuscript as a physical object, manuscript studies often encompasses other fields such as genetic criticism, textual criticism and manuscript culture - the social and cultural context in which the writing took place.
An introduction to paleography and codicology can be found here: https://sexycodicology.net/blog/codicology/
Van Mierlo, W. (2017). "What to do with literary manuscripts?" Comma, International Journal on Archives 2017(1) pp. 75-87 https://doi.org/10.3828/comma.2017.6
Tchernetska, N. (n.d.) Manuscript Studies The Oxford Handbook of Hellenic Studies DOI:10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199286140.013.0065
