Includes bibliographical references (pages 253-264) and index.
CONTENTS NOTE
Text of Note
Cover; Half-title; Title; Copyright; Contents; Acknowledgements; Abbreviations; Introduction; CHAPTER ONE Individuality and sameness; CHAPTER TWO Historical survey; CHAPTER THREE Defining authorship; CHAPTER FOUR External evidence; CHAPTER FIVE Internal evidence; CHAPTER SIX Stylistic evidence; CHAPTER SEVEN Gender and authorship; CHAPTER EIGHT Craft and science; CHAPTER NINE Bibliographical evidence; CHAPTER TEN Forgery and attribution; CHAPTER ELEVEN Shakespeare and Co.; CHAPTER TWELVE Arguing attribution; Notes; Select bibliography; Index.
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SUMMARY OR ABSTRACT
Text of Note
Recent literary scholarship has seen a shift of interest away from questions of attribution. Yet these questions remain urgent and important for any historical study of writing, and have been given a powerful new impetus by advances in statistical studies of language and the coming on line of large databases of texts in machine-searchable form. The present book is the first comprehensive survey of the field from a literary perspective to appear for forty years. It covers both traditional and computer based approaches to attribution, and evaluates each in respect of their potentialities and limitations. It revisits a number of famous controversies, including those concerning the authorship of the Homeric poems, books from the Old and New Testaments, and the plays of Shakespeare. Written with wit as well as erudition Attributing Authorship will make this intriguing field accessible for students and scholars alike.