- Covers, Titles, and Tables: Anthologies and The Formations of American Literary Canons
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Covers, Titles, and Tables: Anthologies and The Formations of American Literary Canons is a database of American Literature anthologies' tables of contents. It is housed in the University of Texas, Arlington Research Commons.
Contents
Site Beginnings
This website began as an idea in one of Dr. Kenneth Roemer's graduate courses on Early American Literature in 1998. In an effort to teach his students that American Literature "Canon Wars" had been fought for almost 200 years and to give them some idea of how publishers, editors, academic institutions, and teachers define American literature, and specifically define how this body of literature has been and is still disseminated to generations of students, Dr. Roemer put together a course packet of tables of contents of American literature anthologies.
The packet originally included 36 volumes and quickly grew to more than one hundred pages. Upon realizing the potential of this sort of collection, a digital archive made much more sense and would save many trees. Together with Dr. Matthew Levy, Dr. Roemer created the first digital version of Covers, Titles, and Tables: Anthologies and the Formations of American Literary Canons.
Continued Growth
The next stages focused on adding volumes, especially the second volumes of two volume anthologies. With the assistance of graduate student Robert Flach, the website was redesigned to add in drop down boxes that made access to the volumes and pages easier. This version of the site contained over 100 volumes and more than 1,000 pages. The site had received more than 10,000 hits between November 2006 and July 2009. Additionally, the site has gained favorable attention with scholar Martha Brogan. She included a discussion of the site in her book A Kaleidoscope of Digital American Literature.
Current Stage
Beginning in the summer of 2009, in collaboration with Bethany Shaffer and Lorie Jacobs, and the Digital Library Services staff at the University of Texas, Arlington,the project initiated the scanning of important anthologies not originally on the database but listed in Joseph Csicsila's Canons by Consensus: Critical Trends and American Literature Anthologies.
The project is currently housed in the UT Arlington ResearchCommons
References
External links
Categories:- Databases
- American literature
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