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A Comparative History of the Literary Draft in Europe
Edited by Olga Beloborodova and Dirk Van Hulle
[Comparative History of Literatures in European Languages XXXV] 2024
► pp. 393–409

2.1.1
Paper

This chapter uses Jane Austen as a case study to explore the roles that paper, the underlying support, play within literary drafts. It investigates whether her choice and use of paper within a relatively small surviving corpus reveal methods and habits of writing. It demonstrates the types of evidence that can be drawn by studying the physical marks and characteristics of paper. Examples show that much can be gleaned from careful characterisation and comparison of the physical features of any paper used for literary drafts. Paper might be thought a neutral carrier, but the conscious or unconscious choices of paper by a writer, coupled with their habits and preferences of use, leave material evidence independent of the written text.
Keywords: paper, paper history, writing paper, literary drafts, Jane Austen, manuscripts
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References (52)
List of archival/manuscript sources
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John Gagnier, Transcript in Arabic characters of Saadia Gaon, Kitāb al-Amānāt wa l-Iʿtiqādāt (Bodleian Library, Oxford, MS. Bodl. Or. 311)
Paul Verlaine, Letter to The Hobby Horse, 18 September 1893 (Bodleian Library, Oxford, MS. Autogr. d. 11, fols. 312–313)
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