Publisher's Synopsis
Punctuation, footnotes, epigraphs, typography, cover design, white space and marginalia are features which significantly affect the meaning of a literary text. Ma(r)king the Text is a unique collection of essays which draws our attention to the importance of those textual elements traditionally ignored in literary criticism. - - The first section of the book opens with a proposal for a new theory of punctuation. The essays which follow are devoted to detailed interpretations of particular marks in the work of individual writers, including Spenser, Richardson and George Eliot. - - The consequences of this approach to the literary text are examined in the second section of the book, which begins with a debate on editorial practice and responsibility, and features insights from editors. Attention is drawn in particular to the special issues thrown up by dramatic texts, translations and electronic editions. - - The relationship of marks to the main text is far from subordinate, and we cannot appreciate the full interpretative potential of a text without considering this. The essays here compel us to assess the interaction of textual and literary meaning. To mark a text is to make it. - - Joe Bray has taught at the Universities of Luton, Strathclyde and Cambridge, and is currently a Lecturer in Literary Stylistics at the University of Stirling - - Miriam Handley lectures in English Literature at the University of Sheffield - - Anne C. Henry is a Research Fellow at Emmanuel College, Cambridge -
