English Language and Literature

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This is the collection for the University of Waterloo's Department of English Language and Literature.

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Browsing English Language and Literature by Author "Connolly, Tristanne"

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    Digital Darwin: Editing The Loves of the Plants as a Case Study of the Theory and Practice of Digital Editions
    (University of Waterloo, 2016-04-26) Rigby, Alana; Connolly, Tristanne
    Digital scholarly editing is an evolving field that allows for the rendering of complex print works that are rife with paratextual material. Erasmus Darwin’s The Loves of the Plants represents this kind of paratextually complex work: it is an eighteenth-century scientific poem of approximately 2000 lines, added to which are illustrations and extensive footnotes. Existing editions of the poem are 1) incomplete, presenting only a portion of the text, 2) lacking annotations, or 3) strip it of some of its paratextual elements, such as the footnotes or illustrations. This paper explores the use of digital editing methods to render Darwin’s most popular poem into the first-ever complete critical edition of part of Loves; using copy-text editing theory in the tradition of Greg and Bowers, an eclectic edition was created. A full transcription and annotations are included. Using the Text Encoding Initiative P5 Guidelines, a digital edition of the Front Materials, Canto I, and Interlude I was also created. The digital edition component of this project can be viewed at: http://alanarigby.wix.com/digitaldarwin. The password is “Snow Grimalkin”. The paper then explores the theory and practice of digital editing, charting its history from inception to present day applications. Ongoing debates in the field are discussed. Three other digital editions – Peter Robinson’s The Canterbury Tales Project; Morris Eaves, Joseph Viscomi, and Robert Essick’s The William Blake Archive; and Martin Priestman’s The Temple of Nature – are surveyed in detail with a focus on the various techniques for representing complex paratextual content. The essay concludes with the realization that digital editions have the capacity to overcome some of the pragmatic limitations encountered when creating scholarly print editions, especially in terms of representing paratextual content. However, this capacity comes with its own challenges and digital editors must, like editors of print, be rigorous in defining editorial goals and limiting scope. Also like print editors, digital editors must also maintain transparency in the application of their principles.
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    William Blake as a Visionary of the New Age: Comparing the New Age Concepts of Eckhart Tolle’s Mind-Body-Spirit Books with Blake’s Illuminated Works
    (University of Waterloo, 2023-08-17) Battaglini, Alexandra; Connolly, Tristanne
    Although William Blake was overlooked in his time, today he is considered a visionary who created worlds with his mythology and encrypted symbolic language. Scholars such as Mark Lussier and David Weir have connected the poet to the religious practices in Buddhism and Hinduism, since parts of his poems include symbols that can be connected to both Eastern religions. His connection to these specific religions has been, by scholars, investigated with the inclusion of his dreams and visions that inspire his work and include deceased loved ones and angels, with the result that Blake has been seen as a mystic. However, Blake’s at times otherworldly concepts go beyond traditional religion and mysticism and can be connected to the New Age movement, more specifically, to the concepts that stem from New Age Thought. His poetry has been quoted by supporters of the New Age in the 1960’s (also coined as the The Age of Aquarius movement) and his work continues to be displayed on tarot cards as well as New Age streaming networks. His mythology does not just explore religious or spiritual concepts, but dives deep into thought patterns of the mind itself and how to alter our states of thinking. Blake demonstrates a curiosity to reform and reprogram the mind through perception and consciousness similarly to the New Age spiritual teachers, authors and influencers we know today. Eckhart Tolle, a popular mind-body-spirit self-help author and spiritual teacher/speaker explores reconstruction of the mind through thought patterns that at times hold similarities to Blake’s understanding of perception that he expresses in his poems and other works. Tolle’s spiritual self-help books will be compared to Blake’s poetry, prose and illuminated pages. Though there are some major differences to address when comparing these two writers, the purpose of this comparison is to explore the idea that Blake could be considered a visionary of the New Age (even before the New Age period) while investigating if his works can then be read as Mind-Body-Spirit texts to assist in the altering of our perspective that New Age authors strive towards. Blake in his lifetime worked towards changing the world through his art and more importantly, strove to change the minds of humankind to achieve a higher state of being, much like mind-body-spirit texts.