There would be difficult copyright issues with much of
this potential content. The archive would need multiple interfaces for
different purposes of data-inputting, searching, viewing sources, and
outputting of findings.
Bibliographic database of James's publications |
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An online version as detailed as Edel and Laurence's
bibliography. |
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Companion and concordance databases |
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Developing work such as Gale's Henry James Encyclopedia
(1989) and the concordance at Adrian Poole's website (2000-2002). |
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Biographical timeline and notes |
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Developed from chronologies like those regularly
printed in student editions of James's books. |
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Hypertext editions of James's fiction |
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On a simple level, these would add hot-linked footnotes
to existing e-texts. |
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Digital facsimiles of James's manuscripts,
periodical publications and book editions |
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These sources are not generally available in their
original form outside research holdings, such as the Houghton library.
Online distribution would need to enhance interest in the primary
sources themselves, rather than diminish their value. |
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Database listing and archive of film,
TV, and radio adaptations |
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Extracts, stills, screenplays and transcripts in
digital form, expanding, for example, on Sarah Koch's filmography. |
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Archive of paperback book covers |
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A resource for research into global perspectives
on James and popular perceptions of his fiction as a "classic"
brand. |
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Archive of related critical and contextual
sources |
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As McGann points out when discussing the Rossetti
Archive, hypermedia archives are unfinishable in principle,
as they can open out into ever wider archives of material potentially
relevant to understanding an author's life and work. This open-endedness
does not mean that the archive cannot have a coherent structure
into which new material can be added. |