Literary Research and the Anglo-Saxon and Medieval Eras: Strategies and Sources

260 Pages·2020·2.579 MB·English

by  Dustin Booher, Kevin B. Gunn

Literary Research and
the Anglo-Saxon
and Medieval Eras
Literary Research: Strategies and Sources
Series Editors: Peggy Keeran & Jennifer Bowers
Every literary age presents scholars with both predictable and unique research
challenges. This series fills a gap in the field of reference literature by featuring
research strategies and by recommending the best tools for conducting specialized
period and national literary research. Emphasizing research methodology, each
series volume takes into account the unique challenges inherent in conducting re-
search of that specific literary period and outlines the best practices for researching
within it. Volumes place the research process within the period’s historical context
and use a narrative structure to analyze and compare print and electronic refer-
ence sources. Following an introduction to online searching, chapters will typi-
cally cover these types of resources: general literary reference materials; library
catalogs; print and online bibliographies, indexes, and annual reviews; scholarly
journals; contemporary reviews; period journals and newspapers; microform and
digital collections; manuscripts and archives; and Web resources. Additional or
alternative chapters might be included to highlight a particular research problem
or to examine other pertinent period or national literary resources.
1. Literary Research and the British Romantic Era by Peggy Keeran and Jen-
nifer Bowers, 2005.
2. Literary Research and the Era of American Nationalism and Romanticism
by Angela Courtney, 2008.
3. Literary Research and American Modernism Era by Robert N. Matuozzi and
Elizabeth B. Lindsay, 2008.
4. Literary Research and the American Realism and Naturalism Period by
Linda L. Stein and Peter J. Lehu, 2009.
5. Literary Research and Irish Literature by J. Greg Matthews, 2009.
6. Literary Research and the Literatures of Australia and New Zealand by H.
Faye Christenberry and Angela Courtney, 2011.
7. Literary Research and British Modernism by Alison M. Lewis, 2010.
8. Literary Research and the British Renaissance and Early Modern Period by
Jennifer Bowers and Peggy Keeran, 2010.
9. Literary Research and the Victorian and Edwardian Ages, 1830–1910 by
Melissa S. Van Vuuren, 2011.
10. Literary Research and Canadian Literature by Gabriella Natasha
Reznowski, 2011.
11. Literary Research and Postcolonial Literatures in English by H. Faye Chris-
tenberry, Angela Courtney, Liorah Golomb, and Melissa S. Van Vuuren, 2012.
12. Literary Research and the British Eighteenth Century by Peggy Keeran and
Jennifer Bowers, 2013.
13. Literary Research and British Postmodernism by Arianne A. Hartsell-
Gundy and Bridgit McCafferty, 2015.
14. Literary Research and American Postmodernism by Emily Witsell, 2016.
15. Literary Research and the Anglo-Saxon and Medieval Eras by Dustin
Booher and Kevin B. Gunn, 2020.
Literary Research and
the Anglo-Saxon
and Medieval Eras
Strategies and Sources
Dustin Booher
Kevin B. Gunn
ROWMAN & LITTLEFIELD
Lanham • Boulder • New York • London
Published by Rowman & Littlefield
An imprint of The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc.
4501 Forbes Boulevard, Suite 200, Lanham, Maryland 20706
www.rowman.com
6 Tinworth Street, London, SE11 5AL, United Kingdom
Copyright © 2020 by The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by
any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval
systems, without written permission from the publisher, except by a reviewer who
may quote passages in a review.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Information Available
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Booher, Dustin, author. | Gunn, Kevin B., author.
Title: Literary research and the Anglo-Saxon and medieval eras : strategies
and sources / Dustin Booher, Kevin B. Gunn.
Other titles: Literary research ; no. 14.
Description: Lanham : Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, 2020. |
Series: Literary research: strategies and sources ; 14 | Includes
bibliographical references and index. | Summary: “Literary Research and
the Anglo-Saxon and Medieval Eras: Strategies and Sources is a guide to
scholarly research in the field of medieval English literature covering
the period 450 CE to 1500 CE. The volume presents the best practices for
building a foundation of sound scholarship practices in the field of
medieval English literature”— Provided by publisher.
Identifiers: LCCN 2019046883 (print) | LCCN 2019046884 (ebook) | ISBN
9781538138427 (cloth) | ISBN 9781538138434 (paperback) | ISBN
9781538138441 (epub)
Subjects: LCSH: English literature—Old English, ca.
450–1100—Research—Methodology. | English literature—Middle English,
1100–1500—Research—Methodology. | English literature—Old English, ca.
450–1100—Information resources. | English literature—Middle English,
1100–1500—Information resources.
Classification: LCC PR166 .B64 2020 (print) | LCC PR166 (ebook) | DDC
829—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019046883
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019046884
™
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of
American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper
for Printed Library Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992.
Contents
Contents
Contents
Acknowledgments vii
Introduction ix
1 The Basics of Online Searching 1
2 General Literary Reference Sources 17
3 Library Catalogs 49
4 Bibliographies, Indexes, and Annual Reviews 69
5 Journals and Series 91
6 Manuscripts 121
7 Genres 137
8 Dictionaries, Lexicons, Thesauri, Etymologies, Paleographies,
and Text-Mining Tools 159
9 Web Resources 177
10 Researching a Thorny Problem 201
Appendix 211
Bibliography 225
Index 227
About the Authors 241
v

Acknowledgments
Acknowledgments
Acknowledgments
We would like to thank our wives, Lara Booher and Andrea Erickson, for
reading early drafts and making comments. Taras Zvir deserves recognition
for compiling lists of potential citations for our early chapters. We appreci-
ate the fine folks in the interlibrary loan department at the John K. Mullen of
Denver Memorial Library for acquiring titles.
Last, we would like to express our heartfelt gratitude to our editors Peggy
Keeran and Jenny Bowers, whose infinite patience, encouragement, and un-
derstanding allowed us to complete the final manuscript.
vii