The Author as Annotator

Zusatztext

What literary and social functions do self-annotations (i.e. footnotes and endnotes that authors appended to their own works) serve? Focussing on Alexander Popes Dunciad s and a wide selection of Lord Byrons poems, Lahrsow shows that literary self-annotations rarely just explain a text. Rather, they multiply meanings and pit different voices against each other. Self-annotations serve to ambiguate the authors self-presentation as well as the genre, tone, and overall interpretation of a text. The study also examines how notes were employed for social networking and how authors used self-annotations to address, and differentiate between, various groups of readerships. Additionally, the volume sheds light on the wider literary and cultural context of self-annotations: How common were they during the long eighteenth century? What conventions governed them? And were they even read? The study hence combines literary analysis with insights into book history and the history of reading.

Autorenportrait

Miriam Lahrsow received her PhD from Eberhard Karls University Tübingen, Germany. She now works as an academic librarian.

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