Master the methods of evaluating texts and authorship in literary history.
This graduate-level guide explains the problems of authenticity and attribution in modern French literature and shows how to approach them with careful, evidence-based analysis. It combines theory with concrete methods you can apply to real texts and manuscripts.
This edition frames the discipline as a practice of careful source work, bibliographical scrutiny, and critical apparatus. It uses classic cases and clear reasoning to help you understand how scholars decide what a work truly is, who wrote it, and how to place it in literary history without overpromising certainty.
- Learn how to identify genuine works, impostures, and misattributions.
- Explore the role of manuscripts, editions, and documentary evidence in authentication.
- See how critical apparatus and bibliography organize and present findings.
- Study historical examples, including well-known debates over attribution in French literature.
Ideal for readers of literary history and graduate students seeking solid, method-based approaches to authenticity and attribution.