MSS: Modern Manuscript Studies--Aims and Objectives

The purpose of this blog aims to raise awareness about manuscripts and manuscript culture covering the period from 1700 to the present as an object of study in literary history, historical bibliography and the history of the book. It seeks to complement the research seminar I convene at the Institute of English Studies with information about and discussion of modern manuscripts, literary drafts, notebooks, composition histories; methodologies and approaches for study; tools and resources for research; the collecting and archiving of manuscripts in national repositories , major research collections and private collections, and so on.

As with the seminar, the goal is to stimulate critical interest and encourage discussion in an area that is contributing greatly to the understanding of authorship, literary production and the nature of writing and aesthetics in the period 1750 to the present. The field of modern manuscript studies is a fairly young but expanding area of study that is generating new and exciting research. The need to widen participation and to stimulate critical interest and encourage discussion in an area that is contributing greatly to the understanding of authorship, literary production and the nature of writing and aesthetics during this period is significant, as well as the necessity to train younger scholars and postgraduate students.

The objectives that I originally envisaged for the seminar are still valid:--

• to broaden the scope of historical bibliography and the history of the book;
• to practice literary history as an archeology of the (literary) text
• to explore a common language and demonstrate analytical methods;
• to encourage a cross-fertilization of national and international traditions
• to exchange experiences among scholars working on different authors and within different disciplines

The unique features of the modern manuscript in the period since the eighteenth century will be looked at in all their aspects: its text, its composition, its history, its editions. Topics and areas for discussion will include:

• processes of writing, mechanics of (literary) creation
• notebooks; reading notes; authors’ libraries
• problem of revision: drafting; revising on typescripts or proofs; rewriting the œuvre
• authorship; intentionality; relationship between writer and publisher
• manuscript as material object and cultural artefact: collecting, preservation, circulation; role of archives; function and nature of facsimiles
• problems of transcription and representation; recording of variants; editing versions
• philology; historical bibliography; textual criticism; textual genetics (critique génétique criticism; critica della varianti; Textgenese)