Volume 1, Number 1 (April 1995)
Early Modern Literary Studies: An Editor's
Prefatory Statement
Raymond G. Siemens
University of British Columbia
EMLS@arts.ubc.ca
Siemens, Raymond G. "Early Modern Literary Studies:
An Editor's Prefatory Statement." Early Modern
Literary Studies 1.1 (1995): 1.1-7 <URL:
http://www.library.ubc.ca/emls/01-1/emls_int.html>.
Copyright (c) 1995 by the author, all rights reserved. Volume
1.1 as a whole is copyright (c) 1995 by Early Modern
Literary Studies, all rights reserved, and may be used and
shared in accordance with the fair-use provisions of U.S.
copyright law. Archiving and redistribution for profit, or
republication of this text in any medium, requires the consent of
the author and the Editor of EMLS.
- The invention of printing, though
ingenious, compared with the invention of letters,
is no great matter. . . . But the most notable
and profitable invention of all other was that of
SPEECH, consisting of names or appellations,
and their connexion; whereby men register their
thoughts; recall them when they are past; and
also declare them one to another for mutual
utility and conversation; without which, there
had been amongst men, neither commonwealth, nor
society, nor contract, nor peace, no more than
amongst lions, bears, and wolves. (Hobbes 17-8)
- In discussing the subject of speech in the first
part of his Leviathan, Thomas Hobbes would
place it within the context of the print technology of
the day, ultimately urging that the matter of a
communication -- situated in the "names or appellations"
which allow people to register, recall, and convey
thoughts -- greatly outweighed in importance the medium
which carried it. Closer to our own time, D. F. McKenzie
would locate Hobbes' thoughts at the centre of what was a
rising controversy surrounding non-traditional textual
media; in the Panizzi Lectures at the British Library in
1985, he began to document the redefinition of
bibliographic concepts of text, stating of the same
passage that:
[Hobbes] reminds us here of what we are now
having to relearn: that print is only a phase in
the history of textual transmission and that we
may be at risk of overstating its importance.
(McKenzie 52)
Now, in early 1995, the atmosphere is such that one might
comfortably apply both Hobbes' and McKenzie's thoughts to
the situation which has arisen out of the increasing
presence and growing acceptance of the electronic medium
as a disseminator of ideas among members of the academic
community. Ten years ago, as the potential for the
computer to serve in this role was just beginning to be
debated by those in the Humanities, this application
would have been much less comfortable.
- Without forgetting about the pioneers of electronic
discussion groups for academics -- Willard McCarty of HUMANIST,
Germaine Warkentin of FICINO,
and Kenneth Steele of SHAKSPER
-- nor the trailblazers of electronic journals in the
Humanities, such as Eyal Amiran and John Unsworth of
Postmodern Culture and James J.
O'Donnell and Eugene Vance of the Bryn
Mawr Classical and Medieval
Reviews, it is thus in the relatively calm
wake of Hobbes, McKenzie, and more recent innovators that
I have the pleasure of introducing
Early Modern Literary Studies: A Journal of
Sixteenth- and Seventeenth-Century English Literature.
As part of this introduction, a few words about Early
Modern Literary Studies (EMLS) itself
are in order.
- EMLS is published three times a year for the
on-line academic community by the University of British
Columbia's English Department, with the support of the
University's Library and Arts Computing Centre. Ours is a
refereed journal, published in electronic form, which
serves as a formal arena for scholarly discussion and as
an academic resource for researchers in the area. Our
articles examine English literature, literary culture,
and language during the sixteenth and seventeenth
centuries from a variety of perspectives. Well-considered
responses to our papers are published as part of a
Readers' Forum. Our reviews evaluate recent work as well
as academic tools of interest to scholars in the field.
- Also associated with EMLS are two
collections of internet-accessible scholarly materials
which will be of interest to our readership: Interactive EMLS
and EMLS On-Line
Resources. While one might not expect this
type of resource to be found in a journal in print form,
our Interactive EMLS houses a pre-print
exchange for forthcoming works, conference materials
(announcements, calls for papers, abstracts, and the
texts of delivered papers), and works in progress;
virtual seminars are also sponsored and facilitated. EMLS
On-Line Resources gathers and maintains links to
useful resources on the internet, including relevant
on-line academic discussion and news groups, electronic
texts, archives, libraries, search tools, and more.
- Our Editorial Group invites
contributions of critical essays on literary topics and
of interdisciplinary studies which centre on literature
and literary culture in English during the sixteenth and
seventeenth centuries, as well as relevant reviews,
bibliographies, notices, letters to the Editor, and other
materials which will be of interest to our readership.
Submissions and suggestions for material for both Interactive
EMLS and EMLS On-Line Resources are
also encouraged and welcomed.
- EMLS does not appear in print form, but can
be obtained free of charge, along with Interactive
EMLS and EMLS On-Line Resources, in
hypertextual format on the World Wide Web at
The journal, alone, is also available in ASCII format for
retrieval using GOPHER at
and by electronic mail subscription by sending a message
to
- If you are reading this on-line, however, you are likely
already familiar with what we have to offer and the means
by which we offer it; and, I hope, you are already
comfortable in suggesting to us ways in which EMLS
can best serve its readership. In that spirit and without
further ado, then, I would like to take this opportunity
to welcome you to this new venture with the hope that,
within, you find much that is interesting and worthwhile.
Just before closing, though, I would also like to thank
generally the many people who have lent their time and
expertise over the past several months to assist in the
formation and publication of EMLS; this
group includes more people than I am able to mention
individually in this brief note, but their help has been
as invaluable and essential as my gratitude is truly
genuine and heartfelt.
R.G.S.
Works Cited
- Hobbes, Thomas. Leviathan, or the Matter, Forme and
Power of a Commonwealth, Ecclesiasticall and Civil.
Ed. Michael Oakeshott. Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1946.
- McKenzie, D. F. Bibliography and the Sociology of
the Text [The Panizzi Lectures, 1985]. London: The
British Library, 1986.
Responses to this piece intended for the Readers' Forum may be
sent to the Editor at EMLS@arts.ubc.ca.
Return to EMLS 1.1 Table of Contents.
[JM; May 1, 1995.]