LEMDO: Structure of Critical Paratexts

Structure of Critical Paratexts

¶ Rationale

Critical paratexts have a simple content model. At their simplest, they are merely numbered paragraphs. At their most complex, they are sections (divisions) with headings and subordinate paragraphs. Sections can contain subsections, but LEMDO advises against a deeply nested structure.

¶ Practice

Critical paratexts may have a


                                          <body>

element and a


                                          <back>

element inside the


                                          <text>

element. Most critical paratext files will not need a


                                          <back>

element at all. LEMDO does not allow


                                          <front>

in critical paratexts.

These are the basic structural elements in a critical paratext file:


                                                <body>

: In most cases, all of your content will be contained with a body element.


                                                <div>

: The body may contain child


                                                <div>

elements.


                                                <head>

: Each


                                                <div>

element needs an immediate child


                                                <head>

element capturing the heading of the section/division.

<p>

: The paragraph is the basic unit of the critical paratext.

Additional structural elements that you may need in a critical paratext file are:


                                                <cit>

: Contains a block quotation.


                                                <quote>

: Child of


                                                <cit>

. Wraps around the quoted material in a block quotation.


                                                <bibl>

: Child of


                                                <cit>

. Follows


                                                <quote>

and wraps around the parenthetical citation inside the


                                                <cit>

element.


                                                <lg>

: Child of


                                                <quote>

. Wraps around line groups in block quotations if the lines form a group and you want to emphasize the fact of the lines forming a group (e.g., a quatrain, a couplet). Note that


                                                <lg>

is not usually necessary in quoted verse.

<l>

: Child of


                                                <quote>

or child of


                                                <lg>

when


                                                <lg>

is a child of


                                                <quote>

. Wraps around verse lines in block quotations.

The basic structural pattern for a critical paratext with two sections of three paragraphs each, with a quotation in running prose and a block quotation in one paragraph is thus:

<body>
  <div>
    <head>Heading for First Section</head>
    <p>Paragraph</p>
    <p>Paragraph with <quote>quotation</quote> (<ref>Parenthetical Citation</ref>).</p>
    <p>Paragraph</p>
  </div>
  <div>
    <head>Heading for Second Section</head>
    <p>Paragraph</p>
    <p>Paragraph <cit>
      <quote>Quoted prose passage goes here in the text node of the quote element.</quote>
      <bibl/>
    </cit>
    </p>
    <p>Paragraph <cit>
      <quote>
        <l>First line of verse:</l>
        <l>Second line of verse,</l>
        <l>Third line of verse.</l>
        <l>Fourth line of verse!</l>
      </quote>
      <bibl>(Parenthetical Citation)</bibl>
    </cit>
    </p>
  </div>
</body>

¶ Special Case: Critical Paratexts with Further Reading Lists

In some cases (to be discussed with your anthology lead), you may wish to include a Further Reading section at the end of a critical paratext. One use case is the encyclopedia entries in the EMEE anthology. In this case, you will add a


                                          <back>

element after the


                                          <body>

element.

In the


                                          <back>

element, include a


                                          <listBibl>

with child


                                          <bibl>

elements. Normally, you will use the


                                       @corresp

to point to an item in LEMDO’s site-wide bibliography, in which case


                                          <bibl>

will be self-closing and not have a text node. If you want to direct readers to online sources that are not in LEMDO’s site-wide bibliography or to specific pages in digital sources, then include the information in the text node of the


                                          <bibl>

element.¹

¶ Divisions/Sections

Critical paratexts may be divided into sections using the


                                          <div>

element and a child


                                          <head>

element. Prose paragraphs are contained within the

<p>

element. Each paragraph is given an


                                       @xml:id

attribute and a unique value so that other parts of the edition (annotations, other critical paratexts) can point to the paragraph and so that users can easily link to and cite paragraphs. When critical paratexts quote from the modern text, we use


                                          <ptr>

elements to point to anchors in the modern text.

Notes

1.Links to specific pages in The Map of Early Modern London can be made using the mol: linking protocol.↑

Prosopography

Isabella Seales

Isabella Seales is a fourth year undergraduate completing her Bachelor of Arts in English at the University of Victoria. She has a special interest in Renaissance and Metaphysical Literature. She is assisting Dr. Jenstad with the MoEML Mayoral Shows anthology as part of the Undergraduate Student Research Award program.

Janelle Jenstad

Janelle Jenstad is a Professor of English at the University of Victoria, Director of The Map of Early Modern London, and Director of Linked Early Modern Drama Online. With Jennifer Roberts-Smith and Mark Kaethler, she co-edited Shakespeare’s Language in Digital Media: Old Words, New Tools (Routledge). She has edited John Stow’s A Survey of London (1598 text) for MoEML and is currently editing The Merchant of Venice (with Stephen Wittek) and Heywood’s 2 If You Know Not Me You Know Nobody for DRE. Her articles have appeared in Digital Humanities Quarterly, Elizabethan Theatre, Early Modern Literary Studies, Shakespeare Bulletin, Renaissance and Reformation, and The Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies. She contributed chapters to Approaches to Teaching Othello (MLA); Teaching Early Modern Literature from the Archives (MLA); Institutional Culture in Early Modern England (Brill); Shakespeare, Language, and the Stage (Arden); Performing Maternity in Early Modern England (Ashgate); New Directions in the Geohumanities (Routledge); Early Modern Studies and the Digital Turn (Iter); Placing Names: Enriching and Integrating Gazetteers (Indiana); Making Things and Drawing Boundaries (Minnesota); Rethinking Shakespeare Source Study: Audiences, Authors, and Digital Technologies (Routledge); and Civic Performance: Pageantry and Entertainments in Early Modern London (Routledge). For more details, see janellejenstad.com.

Joey Takeda

Joey Takeda is LEMDO’s Consulting Programmer and Designer, a role he assumed in 2020 after three years as the Lead Developer on LEMDO.

Martin Holmes

Martin Holmes has worked as a developer in the UVicʼs Humanities Computing and Media Centre for over two decades, and has been involved with dozens of Digital Humanities projects. He has served on the TEI Technical Council and as Managing Editor of the Journal of the TEI. He took over from Joey Takeda as lead developer on LEMDO in 2020. He is a collaborator on the SSHRC Partnership Grant led by Janelle Jenstad.

Navarra Houldin

Project manager 2022–present. Textual remediator 2021–present. Navarra Houldin (they/them) completed their BA in History and Spanish at the University of Victoria in 2022. During their degree, they worked as a teaching assistant with the University of Victoriaʼs Department of Hispanic and Italian Studies. Their primary research was on gender and sexuality in early modern Europe and Latin America.

Rylyn Christensen

Rylyn Christensen is an English major at the University of Victoria.

Tracey El Hajj

Junior Programmer 2019–2020. Research Associate 2020–2021. Tracey received her PhD from the Department of English at the University of Victoria in the field of Science and Technology Studies. Her research focuses on the algorhythmics of networked communications. She was a 2019–2020 President’s Fellow in Research-Enriched Teaching at UVic, where she taught an advanced course on Artificial Intelligence and Everyday Life. Tracey was also a member of the Map of Early Modern London team, between 2018 and 2021. Between 2020 and 2021, she was a fellow in residence at the Praxis Studio for Comparative Media Studies, where she investigated the relationships between artificial intelligence, creativity, health, and justice. As of July 2021, Tracey has moved into the alt-ac world for a term position, while also teaching in the English Department at the University of Victoria.

Orgography

LEMDO Team (LEMD1)

The LEMDO Team is based at the University of Victoria and normally comprises the project director, the lead developer, project manager, junior developers(s), remediators, encoders, and remediating editors.

Metadata

Authority title	Structure of Critical Paratexts
Type of text	Documentation
Short title
Publisher	University of Victoria on the Linked Early Modern Drama Online Platform
Series	Linked Early Modern Drama Online
Source	TEI Customization created by Martin Holmes, Joey Takeda, and Janelle Jenstad; documentation written by members of the LEMDO Team
Editorial declaration	n/a
Edition	Released with Linked Early Modern Drama Online 1.0
Encoding description	Encoded in TEI P5 according to the LEMDO Customization and Encoding Guidelines
Document status	prgGenerated
Funder(s)	Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada
License/availability	This file is licensed under a CC BY-NC_ND 4.0 license, which means that it is freely downloadable without permission under the following conditions: (1) credit must be given to the author and LEMDO in any subsequent use of the files and/or data; (2) the content cannot be adapted or repurposed (except in quotations for the purposes of academic review and citation); and (3) commercial uses are not permitted without the knowledge and consent of the editor and LEMDO. This license allows for pedagogical use of the documentation in the classroom.