A Rationale of Textual Criticism"No one writes more knowledgeably or brilliantly about textual criticism than Tanselle." --Washington Post Textual criticism--the traditional term for the task of evaluating the authority of the words and punctuation of a text--is often considered an undertaking preliminary to literary criticism: many people believe that the job of textual critics is to provide reliable texts for literary critics to analyze. G. Thomas Tanselle argues, on the contrary, that the two activities cannot be separated. "These short, lucid, well-written, humane lectures are essential reading for graduate and undergraduate students concerned with texts of any kind requiring critical attention--and for their teachers." --Review of English Studies G. Thomas Tanselle is Vice President of the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation and Adjunct Professor of English and Comparative Literature at Columbia University. |
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aesthetic artifacts attempt author's intention believe Bibliography collaboration collectors concerned created decide decisions docu documentary text emendation erasures essays evanescence exis exist fact goal historical reconstruction Housman human intended text intentionally left blank interest interpretation judgment kind language letterforms literary literary criticism manuscripts and printed meaning ments nature necessarily one's original painting particular past photocopies physical evidence physical object poem preservation printed books printed edition printer published text publisher's punctuation question the text Rationale of Textual readers reading recognize reconstruct the texts reconstructed texts record recreate reflect regarded reproductions response result revisions scholarly editor scholars scriptoria sequential arts surviving documents surviving texts tangible texts of documents textual criticism Textual scholars Thomas Tanselle thought tion transcriptions typesetting understand UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA utilitarian variant verbal communication verbal statements verbal text versions visual art wish words writing written