Essays in Early Modern Literary Studies, 1995-2000/Early Modern Literary Studies: An Editor's Prefatory Statement

This section was written by Raymond G. Siemens (April, 1995). The invention of printing, though ingenious, compared with the invention of letters, is no great matter. . . . But the most notable and profitable invention of all other was that of SPEECH, consisting of names or appellations, and their connexion; whereby men register their thoughts; recall them when they are past; and also declare them one to another for mutual utility and conversation; without which, there had been amongst men, neither commonwealth, nor society, nor contract, nor peace, no more than amongst lions, bears, and wolves. (Hobbes 17-8) In discussing the subject of speech in the first part of his Leviathan, Thomas Hobbes would place it within the context of the print technology of the day, ultimately urging that the matter of a communication—situated in the "names or appellations" which allow people to register, recall, and convey thoughts—greatly outweighed in importance the medium which carried it. Closer to our own time, D. F. McKenzie would locate Hobbes' thoughts at the centre of what was a rising controversy surrounding non-traditional textual media; in the Panizzi Lectures at the British Library in 1985, he began to document the redefinition of bibliographic concepts of text, stating of the same passage that: [Hobbes] reminds us here of what we are now having to relearn: that print is only a phase in the history of textual transmission and that we may be at risk of overstating its importance. (McKenzie 52) Now, in early 1995, the atmosphere is such that one might comfortably apply both Hobbes' and McKenzie's thoughts to the situation which has arisen out of the increasing presence and growing acceptance of the electronic medium as a disseminator of ideas among members of the academic community. Ten years ago, as the potential for the computer to serve in this role was just beginning to be debated by those in the Humanities, this application would have been much less comfortable. Without forgetting about the pioneers of electronic discussion groups for academics—Willard McCarty of HUMANIST, Germaine Warkentin of FICINO, and Kenneth Steele of SHAKSPER—nor the trailblazers of electronic journals in the Humanities, such as Eyal Amiran and John Unsworth of Postmodern Culture and James J. O'Donnell and Eugene Vance of the Bryn Mawr Classical and Medieval Reviews, it is thus in the relatively calm wake of Hobbes, McKenzie, and more recent innovators that I have the pleasure of introducing Early Modern Literary Studies: A Journal of Sixteenth- and Seventeenth-Century English Literature. As part of this introduction, a few words about Early Modern Literary Studies (EMLS) itself are in order. EMLS is published three times a year for the on-line academic community by the University of British Columbia's English Department, with the support of the University's Library and Arts Computing Centre. Ours is a refereed journal, published in electronic form, which serves as a formal arena for scholarly discussion and as an academic resource for researchers in the area. Our articles examine English literature, literary culture, and language during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries from a variety of perspectives. Well-considered responses to our papers are published as part of a Readers' Forum. Our reviews evaluate recent work as well as academic tools of interest to scholars in the field. Also associated with EMLS are two collections of internet-accessible scholarly materials which will be of interest to our readership: Interactive EMLS and EMLS On-Line Resources. While one might not expect this type of resource to be found in a journal in print form, our Interactive EMLS houses a pre-print exchange for forthcoming works, conference materials (announcements, calls for papers, abstracts, and the texts of delivered papers), and works in progress; virtual seminars are also sponsored and facilitated. EMLS On-Line Resources gathers and maintains links to useful resources on the internet, including relevant on-line academic discussion and news groups, electronic texts, archives, libraries, search tools, and more. Our Editorial Group invites contributions of critical essays on literary topics and of interdisciplinary studies which centre on literature and literary culture in English during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, as well as relevant reviews, bibliographies, notices, letters to the Editor, and other materials which will be of interest to our readership. Submissions and suggestions for material for both Interactive EMLS and EMLS On-Line Resources are also encouraged and welcomed. EMLS does not appear in print form, but can be obtained free of charge, along with Interactive EMLS and EMLS On-Line Resources, in hypertextual format on the World Wide Web at http://purl.oclc.org/emls/emlshome.html The journal, alone, is also available in ASCII format for retrieval using GOPHER at edziza.arts.ubc.ca/english/EMLS and by electronic mail subscription by sending a message to Subscribe_EMLS@arts.ubc.ca If you are reading this on-line, however, you are likely already familiar with what we have to offer and the means by which we offer it; and, I hope, you are already comfortable in suggesting to us ways in which EMLS can best serve its readership. In that spirit and without further ado, then, I would like to take this opportunity to welcome you to this new venture with the hope that, within, you find much that is interesting and worthwhile. Just before closing, though, I would also like to thank generally the many people who have lent their time and expertise over the past several months to assist in the formation and publication of EMLS; this group includes more people than I am able to mention individually in this brief note, but their help has been as invaluable and essential as my gratitude is truly genuine and heartfelt. R.G.S. Works Cited Hobbes, Thomas. Leviathan, or the Matter, Forme and Power of a Commonwealth, Ecclesiasticall and Civil. Ed. Michael Oakeshott. Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1946. McKenzie, D. F. Bibliography and the Sociology of the Text [The Panizzi Lectures, 1985]. London: The British Library, 1986. ==A Brief Look Backward and Forward from EMLS''' Second Issue==This section was written by Raymond G. Siemens (August, 1995). It gives me great pleasure, for a number of reasons, to write this brief foreword to this, our second, issue of EMLS. The four months since our first issue have seen much change both outside of and within our journal. In the larger academic world, there has been a growing awareness of and interest in journals which publish in electronic form. With the British Library report of last year that documented the untried state of electronic journals still fresh in the minds of many,Peter Vickers and John Martyn, eds. The Impact of Electronic Publishing on Library Services and Resources in the UK: Report of the British Library Working Party on Electronic Publishing. Library and Information Research Report 102. London: The British Library Board, 1994. the past few months have been marked by a series of events which suggest, as Germaine Warkentin (founder of the Ficino discussion group) has recently noted, a "radical re-structuring"From a note posted to Ficino, 14 June 1995. of scholarly journal publication in our own country, Canada, and beyond. Among others, these include: an engaging debate on the subject of electronic publication begun by Stevan Harnad and Steve Fuller in the May 12th issue of the Times Higher Education Supplement; the publication of Scholarly Journals at the Crossroads: A Subversive Proposal for Electronic Publishing, edited by James O'Donnell and Ann Okerson (Washington, DC: Association of Research Libraries), which chronicles a related though earlier debate; the widespread availability of the new MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers (Fourth Edition) which outlines, within its section on Citing Online Databases, a useful method for citing material from electronic journals and other on-line resources (pp. 160 ff.); the further growth of the HyperJournal discussion list, which deals exclusively with journals in this medium and houses a valuable archive; and the announcement of several new electronic journals (these can be found in the NewJourArchives), as well as some established journals that will appear in electronic form (several examples are found among the changes which have recently taken place on the Project Muse home page). Closer to home, figures gathered in the four months since our first issue show that EMLS has enjoyed a considerable and consistently growing readership. Before our first issue in late April, our sections cataloguing discussion groups, on-line resources, and electronic texts of interest to our readers were accessed several hundred times per month; since then, that figure has grown. Readership of EMLS 1.1 had, by early July, exceeded one thousand and five hundred, and has continued to increase as the new academic term draws nearer. Internally, organisational changes have been made to accommodate the growing participation of our readership. In this vein, we are pleased to welcome Joanne Woolway, formerly our editor of reviews, as an associate editor and Patricia Badir as an associate editor (reviews), both of whom will be assuming these roles as we prepare for our third issue; as a member of our Editorial Board, we welcome John Archer. The summer has also seen the continued improvement of our electronic resource pages, under the management of David Gants and Perry Willett. The release of our second issue coincides with the conclusion of conceptual and physical development on Interactive EMLS (iEMLS)] under the guidance of members of our editorial and advisory boards, led, early on, by Stephen Matsuba and, later, Jeff Miller; Jeff, who is responsible for EMLS site management and on-line development issues, as well as other matters related to our medium of publication, deserves a special note of thanks for his contributions to EMLS and, in recent months, iEMLS. As the name Interactive EMLS suggests, this area of our site is an extension of what EMLS itself offers as a journal, with an eye to fostering an on-line environment for academic interaction within the community of readers we serve. iEMLS is intended to be developed and expanded through reader participation; it is, essentially, a framework for a group-driven repository of materials of interest to those reading, researching, and studying the early modern period, and will develop along with the materials, resources, and proposals received. iEMLS sections such as Works in Progress and Prepublication Material allow readers of EMLS to seek a wider forum for their work as it takes shape, possibly soliciting comment from others as it evolves, and to make their work available in the period following its acceptance and prior to its publication, electronic or otherwise. The Conference Materials section is intended as a forum for conference organisers, participants, attendees, and others; here, readers will find calls for papers, conference advertisements and programmes, papers and addresses from past and forthcoming conferences, and other materials. The Resources section is a space for readers of EMLS to make on-line resources—including those of a collaborative and continuously-evolving nature—available to the larger academic community; links to on-line resources at other sites will continue to be gathered on the WWW-Accessible Resources page. Lastly, the Virtual Seminars section is intended to facilitate discussions on specialised topics proposed and led by our readers. With the unveiling of iEMLS this month, readers will find information about our first virtual seminar, led by Luc Borot, which will discuss More's Utopia as political literature and will take place this fall, running concurrently with and incorporating students from his seminar in Montpellier. Other materials are also available, such as Richard Marius' keynote address from the Thomas More conference at Baltimore's Loyola College earlier this year, previously unavailable electronic transcriptions of Milton's four divorce tracts (The Doctrine and Discipline of Divorce, Colasterion, The Judgement of Martin Bucer, and Tetrachordon), and more. As of the date of EMLS 1.2's publication, further material has been received; it will appear soon, as will other materials that we receive in the future. The general model (that of the repository) which has informed the development of iEMLS is nothing new; neither, for that matter, is the idea of the journal which informs that of EMLS. However, recent technologically-oriented trends in academe — particularly those which relate to the exchange and dissemination of academic materials, some of which are noted above — urge that, in addition conforming to traditional notions of what it means to be an academic journal, electronic journals must also work towards offering to its readers the best innovations on that model allowed by the medium. To that end, I am very pleased to introduce iEMLS, and to welcome, in addition to the involvement of our readers in iEMLS, further input from its participants regarding its future development. R.G.S. Notes Evolution and Growth in On-line Resources for Early Modern Literary Studies This section was written by Raymond G. Siemens (December, 1995). We live in an age which is seeing, as Paul Delany and George Landow have put it, "the most fundamental change in textual culture since Gutenberg" (5). Only three years old, this statement has gained the status of being an accepted truth. Indeed, it has quickly become commonplace in many circles to hold an understanding that the electronic medium has itself prompted the redefinition of what lies at the heart of our interests — that is, the textual and text-related artifacts upon which the field of literary studies is built. However, what one has typically found less commonly (though with increasing frequency) is an appreciation that, in addition to the privilege we have in being spectators to this change, we are also privileged to be witnessing at the same time the transformation of academic resources this redefinition necessitates, particularly those facilitating scholarly interaction. The change of which I speak is of such a magnitude that it can be noticed by those who have not yet approached, even suspiciously, the electronic technologies that promise to reshape many aspects of scholarly interaction. That said, an understanding of its degree and rate of growth is better held by those who have actively utilised resources in the new medium for some time, for this group has had the opportunity to watch the rise of electronic scholarly resources proceed at a pace far different from the accelerated one of today. An appreciation of this can be felt in many ways, of which noting an accelerated rate of growth is just one; another way is to note the rising level of support given to such resources. Scholarly institutions and organisations often provide support via policies and initiatives, while individual academics do so through positive feedback (or the absence of negative feedback), utilisation, and involvement. To dwell briefly on one aspect of the latter, shortly after the announcement of EMLS in November 1994 we received a note addressed to the editor which expressed excitement and support for our publication; we welcomed this response, and we have since had the pleasure of further and similar correspondence. Such responses exemplify, I believe, the support which is currently being given to like-minded ventures worldwide; couple these responses with the increasing activity around sites such as EMLS, and a clearer picture comes into focus. The publication of our third issue, which marks the end of the first publishing year for EMLS, also marks the end of a calendar year in which our medium has taken the first steps towards coming into its own. Largely through the use and positive backing of resources such as ours by individual scholars — but, quite necessarily, by the support given by individuals via the representation provided them by institutions (departments, faculties, and universities) and organisations (the MLA, quite notably, and others) — the year has seen a considerable expansion of on-line resources related to the study of early modern English literature. In examining these new resources, as our cataloguing, monitoring, and evaluating activities urge us to do (refer to our pages listing On-line Resources and Electronic Texts), one cannot help but ask if the terms we are using to describe this change are completely accurate. Certainly the word growth addresses quite fully the increased presence and awareness of such resources, but growth describes only part of the larger reconfiguration, the expansion. A word which suits some aspects of the recent developments beyond that referring to expansion is evolution. Evolution has its failings as well as an accurate descriptor, for it does not capture fully the spirit of the medium, one originating in the early internet's chaotic organisational assumptions and manifesting itself today in our field in an atmosphere characterised by mutual support and cooperative efforts; typically, these are characteristics not often exemplified by those employing metaphors relying on Darwinian theories. But it is still a useful term, as is the other, for recent developments depict both growth and evolution. The increasing resources that facilitate scholarly interaction have been growing with an eye to the boundaries set by traditional models—correspondence, conferences, journals, and so forth. Every so often, however, our medium allows us to challenge the boundaries of those models that are set by their media, to build upon a model of interaction or, put simply, to evolve. Between the traditional models and those in the new medium one may see correspondences: mail equals electronic mail, conferences are akin to electronic discussion groups, and journals may be equated with electronic journals. At times, however, the very nature of the electronic medium makes possible types of exchanges not allowed by the restraints of traditional media. Those familiar with electronic mail know only too well that, though an e-mail is the new medium's application of mail (from the traditional model dictated by exchanges via post), the possibilities of e-mail are far greater than those of traditional mail alone. E-mail made possible the adoption of the conference model by on-line academic discussion groups because it allowed for messages to be distributed to a large group of people with great speed and ease; it allowed written correspondence to be treated with an immediacy and a dissemination that the traditional mail model did not easily allow. If we accept this, at the same time we must also recognise that equivalent possibilities exist for other models as they are adopted into the electronic medium. The example of e-mail facilitating the on-line discussion group represents an evolution and, with the increase of participation in and support for such models of interaction, this evolution has brought about further growth. The popularity and usefulness of generally-focussed groups such as HUMANIST influenced the growth of other similar groups, though with more specific interests. In our field, SHAKSPER and FICINO (to name only two) have influenced the growth of other such groups; their success led to the emergence of others based on the same pattern of interaction and focussing on various aspects of the larger area of Renaissance studies in response to the specialised interests of the growing on-line academic community. Today, a good number of such groups exist (many of which can be found catalogued on the EMLS Academic Discussion Groups & Internet News Groups page). Their importance today as scholarly resources is only partially suggested by the name by which many have come to know them, a name which suggests also quite clearly the model they seek to emulate: Electronic Conferences. At times interrelated, and certainly with considerable overlap among their participants, they inhabit the electronic medium together, complementing one another and so serving the area as a whole much as traditional academic conferences and gatherings of groups focussed on specific issues have done for some time. So, too, is it beginning to appear today with electronic journals—in much the way as it has been among traditional journals for some time—and it is a pleasure to find EMLS now amidst a growing group of Renaissance-oriented journals which publish in electronic form, as well as an increasing number of non-electronic journals which have established a presence on the internet. English Literary History, of course, has been available on-line since its early association with Johns Hopkins' Project Muse, but among newer initiatives more specifically focussed on our period are the innovative Milton Review which, well-worth watching because of the way it fuses models of scholarly interaction (in addition to, of course, its content), operates in co-operation and conjunction with the Milton-L discussion group, and Renaissance Forum which promises, quite like EMLS, a concentration on sixteenth- and seventeenth-century literary topics, though with a strict interdisciplinary focus on historical scholarship and critical methodologies. Among non-electronic journals that are establishing an exemplary presence in the internet are Milton Quarterly, Cahiers Élisabéthains, Exemplaria, and the Sixteenth Century Journal, and others. Like the expansion of discussion groups, this proliferation in many cases is perhaps best characterised as good growth based on what is already an established model. This is not intended in the least to devalue the importance of the increasing presence of electronic journal resources; quite the contrary, in fact, for this expanding group of journals is very good company, indeed! But, that said, we should in our enthusiasm be willing to recognise the difference between growth and evolution and, as both are quite positive, we should revel in and appreciate each for what it is. The recent growth in the areas of on-line journals is indicative of an increasing knowledge of the technology's adequacy (as well as its cost-effectiveness) for scholarly publication, of a greater recognition by individuals, universities, and professional organisations of work published in the medium and, ultimately, of the growing body of scholars who are making profitable use of such resources. Because of such involvement and acceptance, this particular model of interaction will have the opportunity to evolve. We at EMLS are happy to have had the chance to be part of the smaller community of electronic resource providers that existed at the time of our announcement in late 1994; now, just a year later, we are pleased to have been of use to the nine thousand or so individual readers who have visited the pages of EMLS. Having been the first electronic journal exclusively to serve our area, we are now even more excited to have the opportunity to serve the early modern period along with others, so we may together promote the evolution of a model in what appears to be its first period of rapid growth. R.G.S. Works Cited Delany, Paul, and George P. Landow. "Managing the Digital Word: The Text in an Age of Electronic Reproduction." 3-28 in Delany, Paul, and George P. Landow, eds. The Digital Word: Text-Based Computing in the Humanities. Cambridge, MA: MIT P, 1993. A New Universal Resource Locator for EMLS This section was written by Raymond G. Siemens (August, 1996). Beginning with the current issue of EMLS (2.2), we will begin employing what is coming to be known as a Persistent Uniform Resource Locator (PURL). A PURL is a URL which points not directly to a location but, rather, points to a service which will redirect a WWW browser to the location being sought. More information about PURLs can be found on the Online Computer Library Center (OCLC) PURL page, at <URL: http://purl.oclc.org/>. This action reflects thought on a number of concerns, most notably the strong desire that the pages of EMLS have a stable address (if not exact location) for purposes of access, linking, citation, and so forth. This desire, perhaps idealistic when one considers the nature of the medium in which EMLS publishes, is challenged by what is a very pragmatic concern: before the end of 1996, the local machine which hosts our server will be moving and, consequently, EMLS materials will move along with it. Adopting a PURL some time before the move assists in making the transition from one machine to another, and one URL to another, slightly less awkward than it would be otherwise; in practical terms, it allows four months for the many direct links to' our pages, and for the personal bookmarks of our regular readers and users, to be updated. As well—and in consideration of the flux which, sadly, can characterize aspects of publication in the electronic medium—it ensures that future moves will take place seamlessly. PURL addresses for our three sites are as follows: EMLS (Vancouver), <URL: http://purl.oclc.org/emls/emlshome.html>,EMLS Mirror Site (Oxford), <URL: http://purl.oclc.org/emls/UK/emlshome.html>,Interactive EMLS (Vancouver), <URL: http://purl.oclc.org/emls/iemls/iemlshom.html> The structural organization of our pages will remain unaltered, and the URL for our archive at the National Library of Canada, <URL: http://www.nlc-bnc.ca/eppp-archive/emls/emls-h/emlshome.html>, will not be altered to PURL format. To alter links and bookmarks to reflect our PURL, we suggest the following: For links and bookmarks to materials at our Vancouver EMLS site: convert the site prefix of our URL, which currently reads "http://www.library.ubc.ca/emls/", to "http://purl.oclc.org/emls/". For links and bookmarks to materials at our Oxford EMLS mirror site: convert the site prefix of our URL, which currently reads "http://users.ox.ac.uk/~emls/", to "http://purl.oclc.org/emls/UK/". For links and bookmarks to materials at the Interactive EMLS site: convert the site prefix of our URL, which currently reads "http://edziza.arts.ubc.ca/english/iemls/", to "http://purl.oclc.org/emls/iemls/". We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause, but hope that our readers will agree that, at this time, a resolution service for our URL such as that offered by OCLC will ensure that future machine relocations will be able to proceed with no interruption of service. R.G.S. A New Home for EMLSEMLS is moving its home site to Sheffield Hallam University. At the moment the site is still at the testing stage, but in a few weeks it will become the permanent main site for the journal. The site will continue to be mirrored at the University of Alberta. The EMLS editorial group wishes to thank the Cultural Studies Department at Sheffield Hallam for providing support and resources for the new home.  Thanks are also due to the previous sponsors of EMLS, namely the University of Alberta's Department of English and Faculty of Arts (1997-1999), and the University of British Columbia, where EMLS was founded in 1994, and remained until 1997. While distributed from a new location, our Persistent Universal Resource Locator (PURL) will remain the same, at <http://purl.oclc.org/emls/emlshome.html>; our new contact and mailing addresses are listed in the document below. Please report any difficulties with the new site to the Editor, Lisa Hopkins (L.M.Hopkins@shu.ac.uk) or the Managing Editor (Special Issues), Matthew Steggle (M.Steggle@shu.ac.uk). Submission InformationEMLS invites contributions of critical essays on literary topics and of interdisciplinary studies which centre on literature and literary culture in English during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Contributions, including critical essays and studies (which must be accompanied by a 250 word abstract), bibliographies, notices, letters, and other materials, may be submitted to the Editor by electronic mail at L.M.Hopkins@shu.ac.uk or by regular mail to Dr Lisa Hopkins, Early Modern Literary Studies, School of Cultural Studies, Sheffield Hallam University, Collegiate Crescent Campus, Sheffield, UK, S10 2BP. Electronic mail submissions are accepted in ASCII format. Regular mail submissions of material on-disk are accepted in ASCII, Wordperfect, or Microsoft Word format; hard-copy submissions must be accompanied by electronic copies, either on-disk or via electronic mail, and will not be returned. All submissions must follow the current MLA Handbook, in addition to the following conventions used by Early Modern Literary Studies for ASCII text: <b>bold text</b> is indicated by tags which surround the text that is to appear in bold, likewise with <i>italicized text</i>, <u>underlined text</u>, and ^superscript; superscript is used for note numbers in the text, and notes themselves appear at the end of the document. A document outlining the representation of non-ASCII characters is available on-site or by request. Reviews and materials for review may be sent to Lisa Hopkins at the above address. Please note that all unsolicited materials sent to EMLS for the purposes of review must be plainly marked with the word "Donation" on the front of the mailing cover. General InformationEMLS (ISSN 1201-2459) is published three times a year for the on-line academic community by agreement with, and with the support of, the University of Alberta's Department of English. EMLS is indexed by the MLA International Bibliography, the Modern Humanities Research Association's Annual Bibliography of English Language and Literature (ABELL), Web-Cite, the Lycos and InfoSeek indexing services and others, as well as being linked to resource pages of scholarly journals, libraries, educational institutions, and others worldwide.EMLS does not appear in print form, but can be obtained free of charge in hypertextual format on the World Wide Web at http://purl.oclc.org/emls/emlshome.html The EMLS site is mirrored at Oxford University and the University of Alberta.  EMLS is a participant in the National Library of Canada's Electronic Publications Pilot Project, where it is also archived; it is also archived by the Committee on Institutional Cooperation (CIC) Electronic Journals Collection. Contact Points Journal Information, Comments, Mailing List: For more information, to join our mailing list, or to offer your comments on EMLS, please contact our Assistant Editor, Sean Lawrence, at seanlawrence@writeme.com. Site Information, Comments, &c.: All correspondence pertaining to our site may be sent our Associate Editor, Paul Dyck, at Paul.Dyck@UAlberta.ca., or to Matthew Steggle, Managing Editor (Special Issues), M.Steggle@shu.ac.uk. Editor: Correspondence to the Editor may be sent to L.M.Hopkins@shu.ac.uk. Hard-copy correspondence may be addressed to: Dr Lisa Hopkins, Early Modern Literary Studies'', School of Cultural Studies, Sheffield Hallam University, Collegiate Crescent Campus, Sheffield, UK, S10 2BP.