introductoryEssays
6.2. Introductory essays
6.2.1. A textual introduction
This essay will permit you to explain and justify your general editorial approach to the text, and to discuss salient major points of contention. You may choose to explore particular cruxes in independent appendices, linked both to this essay and to a level 2 note in the text itself.
6.2.2. A survey of critical approaches to the play
The survey should cover the critical reception to the play since its first performance to the present day. Where it is possible for you to assemble an anthology of critical materials (see below), the items in it should be linked to the survey.
6.2.3. A stage history
Like the critical survey, the stage history of the play should cover the period from its first performance to the present. For some plays there is an embarrassment of riches; you should select representative performances to illustrate general tendencies in the earlier periods, and the most influential or controversial in more recent times. Your discussion of the history of performance will be a good opportunity for you to include graphic materials, where copyright can be obtained, and perhaps some video clips.
6.2.4. A critical discussion of the play
This will be your opportunity to bring the insight you have gathered from your study of the play to a wider audience. Like the other essays in the edition, the critical discussion should be structured to use the medium of hypertext effectively.
6.2.5. A discussion of computer analyses of the play
This section of the edition is optional, or can be contributed by a scholar who specializes in the subject.
6.2.6. The Broadview Introduction
The separate Web essays enumerated above will be reorganized and edited into an introduction of 30-50 book pages (approx 13,500-22,500 words); the main focus should be on critical approaches to the play, your own critical discussion, and the stage history.