Annotation as an Embedded Textual Practice: Some Further Comments in Response to Lena Linne and Burkhard Niederhoff

• Published in: Connotations (Münster in Westfalen, Germany) Germany), 2020-07, Vol.29 (2), p.142-155
• Main Author: Dury, Richard
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Allusion; Ambiguity; Annotations; Austen, Jane (1775-1817); Authorship; Biographies; British & Irish literature; Connotation; Criticism and interpretation; Criticism, Textual; Dialogue; English literature; Epic literature; Exegesis & hermeneutics; Explanation; Gothic fiction; Interruptions; Linne, Lena; Literary characters; Literary criticism; Literary devices; Literary translation; Methods; Niederhoff, Burkhard; Personality; Readers; Reading; Text analysis; Writers
• ISSN: 0939-5482
• DOI: 10.25623/conn029-dury-1

The present article, in dialogue with Lena Linne and Burkhard Niederhoff's recent article in Connotations, presents writing explanatory notes as an art, involving a feeling of what is right. In the first part, it discusses some of Linne and Niederhoff's points about how explanatory notes are read and their advice on composition that derives from this. A modification is suggested to their recommendation that notes should be "as self-effacing as possible" to that they should be simply "self-effacing," as some element of personality will always emerge. Similarly it is suggested that "as concise as possible" could be modified to "concisely-formulated." Their comparison of notes to a detour on a journey is a good guide to avoid excessive length and irrelevance, although even a longish note can be read without disturbance if taken at a natural break in the reading. The authors also mention the possibility of notes in the form of extended commentary between annotation and the critical essay, and to their examples another is proposed: the "annotated edition," inspired by The Annotated Alice of 1960. The second part takes the examples from Dury (2005) quoted by Linne and Niederhoff to see how, guided by the authors' comments, these would be rewritten by Dury in 2020. The actions here involve greater concision, removal of interpretation, moving a note to a more relevant point of the text, and provision of additional information to clarify. In the penultimate example, a final interpretative comment in the area of genre conventions is preferred to leaving the reader with a series of comments on ambiguity. In the last example, an accepted difference over interpretation is handled by using modality to present the explanation as not final.