GUIDE FOR CONTRIBUTORS TO THE SOURCES AND ANALOGUES PROJECT


Submissions

Each contributor should submit one typewritten copy of first drafts to the general editor by the deadline and one typewritten copy to the editorial board advisor assigned to read his or her chapter. Both copies will be returned with a summary of suggestions for revisions and changes.

Contributors should submit three copies of final drafts by deadline, one typewritten copy and one disc copy to the general editor and one typewritten copy to the editorial board advisor. Send the computer copy on an MS-DOS 3 1/2 " disc in either WordPerfect format or ASCII format (plain text).


Organization and Contents of Chapters

Individual chapters will have four main components presented in the following order: (1) introduction (2) texts of sources and/or analogues (3) modern English translations (4) selected bibliographies. They may also contain optional materials such as lists of analogues, and/or lists of MSS of sources and analogues.

The contents of introductions will vary from chapter to chapter depending on the kinds of problems and issues that need to be discussed concerning the source texts themselves and Chaucer's use of them. As a general rule, however, each introduction should include some discussion of the evidence of Chaucer's indebtedness to a known source, or some rationale for believing he may have known, or may have had access to a particular analogue or analogues. The introduction should probably also include some commentary on the origin and history of a particular work (or genre, Framework, General Prologue) and its transmission down to Chaucer. Some rationale should also be given for the removal of texts appearing in S&A1 (e.g. Sercambi's Novelle from the chapter on the Framework because it was not completed until about 1400). The introduction should also provide a summary and evaluation of the published scholarship on the sources and analogues of a particular tale since the publication of S&A1, including especially information on discoveries of new sources and analogues and newly discovered MSS or printed editions of previously identified source texts.

The one thing the introductions should not include is any critical comment or discussion of Chaucer's artistic use of any sources or analogues. Like its parent, the revised S&A will serve primarily as a reference tool that will stimulate, but not include, such criticism and discussion. The introduction will be followed by texts of sources, "hard" analogues, and "soft" analogues (see below), preferably in that order. As a general rule, contributors should be guided in their selections of sources and analogues by what they believe our specialized and general audiences would want and expect to find in the standard reference work on Chaucer's sources. Similarly, contributors will choose the kinds and number of analogues to be included in their chapters, but in some cases where there are numerous analogues (e.g. Prioress's Tale), decisions about how many and which ones to print should be made in consultation with the editors and the editorial board.

Obviously all texts of Chaucer's major narrative sources should appear in S&A2. We want to print complete texts, or complete sections of texts, of these sources. But in some cases, because of their extreme length (Knight's Tale) or the nature of the source material itself (General Prologue, Sir Thopas), it will be possible to provide only partial texts or a number of representative extracts. Biblical sources (Monk's Tale), minor supplementary sources, like extracts from Ovid, Dante, and Roman de Ia Rose that Whiting included in the chapter on the Wife of Bath's Tale in S&A1, and sources that are easily and readily available elsewhere in good editions and translations, should be excluded from S&A2. All purely literary echoes and allusions that scholars have discovered or suggested should certainly not be included.

By "hard" analogues are meant those that, because of their dates and provenance, Chaucer presumably may have known or had access to. These will always be given preference over "soft" analogues. By "soft" analogues are meant those that are post-Chaucerian (or post medieval) and not likely to have circulated in Chaucer's England or been known by him. These will not ordinarily be printed unless no other analogues are known, or it can be demonstrated that they contain important information or elements relevant to the study of Chaucer's sources.

Texts of all sources and analogues, except those in Middle English, will be accompanied by modern English prose translations. These translations may be made by persons other than the contributors themselves, but the contributors will be responsible for securing permissions and making payments to use them. Selected bibliographies should be placed at the end of the chapters. These should be lists of books and articles dealing only, or mainly, with textual and historical studies of the source texts. They may include items not already mentioned in footnotes.


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