The Editorial Gaze

This collection of original essays brings international and multidisciplinary perspectives to the problem of how to understand and practice editorial mediation: How does editing alter what it seeks to represent? How does it condition the relationship between texts and readers? The different concerns shared by editors of a variety of genres, literary and otherwise, emerge here as constructive new approaches to the theory and practice of editing are explored. The essays make a concerted attempt to assess the implications of postmodern thought on one of the oldest and most fundamental cultural activities, editing The section on theory covers such important subjects as editorial responsibility, the death of the author, and the nature of the authorial voice. The practice section covers actual editing situations in various literary areas and in musicology, recorded music, and the preservation of oral literature. The multidisciplinary volume will find its readers among students of textual criticism, literature, music, and folklore as well as any readers of postmodern criticism.

Paul Eggert, Margaret Sankey

Preface * Introduction, Margaret Sankey * Editorial Theory , Random Cloud, Enter Reader , T. H. Howard-Hill * The Dangers of Editing, or, the Death of the Editor , David Greetham * 'What Does It Matter Who Is Speaking, 'Someone Said, 'What Does It Matter Who Is Speaking?' (Greetham Version), or, 'What does it matter who is speaking?': Editorial Recuperation of the Estranged Author (Eggert Version) , Paul Eggert * Social Discourse or Authorial Agency: Bridging the Divide between Editing and Theory * Theory in Practice , Richard Fotheringham * Editing Popular Nineteenth-Century Melodramas , Mary Jane Edwards * Editing a Major Canadian Novels William Kirby's The Golden Dog, Margaret Sankey * From Seventeenth-Century Clandestine Manuscript to Contemporary Edition: L'Autre Monde of Cyrano do Bergerac , Mary Chan * Editorial Decisions for Roger North's Life of the Lord Keeper North: Practice and Theory * Extending the Gaze , Margaret Clunies Ross * Editing the Oral Text: Medieval and Modern Transformations , Jeff Brownrigg * The Art of Audio-Editing: Re-presenting Early Australian Vocal Recordings , Robyn Holmes * Australian Music Editing and Authenticity: Would the real Mrs Monk please stand up? , Note on Contributors * Index