Wednesday, September 29, 2010

Marco Manuscript Workshop: "Editions and E-ditions: New Media and Old Texts" February 4–5, 2011

Marco Manuscript Workshop: "Editions and E-ditions: New Media and Old Texts"
February 4–5, 2011
The Marco Institute for Medieval and Renaissance Studies
University of Tennessee, Knoxville

The Fifth Marco Manuscript Workshop will be held Friday and Saturday,
February 4 and 5, 2011, at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville;
the workshop is organized by Professors Maura K. Lafferty (Classics)
and Roy M. Liuzza (English).

In this year’s workshop we hope to consider how the tools we use to
study texts have shaped, and continue to shape, our practice of
editing. Do the editorial principles we adopt arise from the reality
of medieval texts, or do they construct that reality? Does our choice
of one convention of presentation over another predispose us and our
readers to certain kinds of interpretations? Are concepts like
‘variant’, ‘apparatus’, even ‘text’, a reflection of the material we
study, or the social history of printed editions?

Meanwhile, changing technology for presenting and organizing texts
and images make it seem that the most venerable principles might
suddenly be negotiable and the most basic conventions unnecessary;
whatever can be imagined can be achieved. But do new tools for
studying manuscripts require new rules for reading and making
editions? What are the new principles and conventions used to create
electronic editions? And if these new tools free us from the
constraints of traditional printed text, do they impose other
constraints not yet apparent to us? We welcome presentations on any
aspect of this topic, broadly imagined.

The workshop is open to scholars and students at any rank and in any
field who are engaged in textual editing, manuscript studies, or
epigraphy. Individual 75-minute sessions will be devoted to each
project; participants will be asked to introduce their text and its
context, discuss their approach to working with their material, and
exchange ideas and information with other participants. As in
previous years, the workshop is intended to be more a class than a
conference; participants are encouraged to share new discoveries and
unfinished work, to discuss both their successes and frustrations, to
offer both practical advice and theoretical insights, and to work
together towards developing better professional skills for textual
and codicological work. We particularly invite the presentation of
works in progress, unusual manuscript problems, practical
difficulties, and new or experimental models for studying or
representing manuscript texts. Presenters will receive a stipend of
$500 for their participation.

The deadline for applications has been extended to October 15, 2010.
Applicants are asked to submit a current CV and a two-page letter
describing their project to Roy M. Liuzza, preferably via email to
, or by mail to the Department of English,
University of Tennessee, 301 McClung Tower, Knoxville, TN 37996-0430.

The workshop is also open at no cost to scholars and students who do
not wish to present their own work but are interested in sharing a
lively weekend of discussion and ideas about manuscript studies.
Further details will be available online later in the year; meanwhile
please contact Roy Liuzza for more information.

[The Marco Manuscript Workshop is sponsored by the Marco Institute
for Medieval and Renaissance Studies at the University of Tennessee,
with support from the Hodges Better English Fund and the Office of
Research in the College of Arts and Sciences.]

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