Annotated bibliography of all secondary sources consulted. An annotated bibliography uses MLA format and contains a brief 3-5 sentence description under each entry explaining the argument presented in that particular source. As well, one of these sentences should state exactly how the source was/was not useful in developing your project/argument. It’s fine to cite parts of critical books, such as particular chapters used/read. Please include only scholarly academic sources. The following link provides more information about annotated bibliographies, including sample entries. Please note, that for this exercise, you will simply describe the argument and its use value for the project.
[Submitted 5 December 2010]
Blecki, Catherine La Courreye, and Karin A. Wulf, eds. Milcah Martha Moore's Book: a Commonplace Book from Revolutionary America. University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State UP, 1997. Print.
Moore’s commonplace book, a handwritten manuscript, resides in the Edward Wanton Smith Collection in the Quaker Collection Library at Haverford College; it is not available on microfiche. The modern critical edition, edited by Blecki and Wulf, makes my project possible. The careful transcription work, the extensive and exhaustive biographical, cultural, historical, and history of the book scholarship provides the backbone of my conference paper. The strong emphasis on friendship and same-sex relationships encouraged me to explore and extend their argument by classifying these relationships as explicitly female homosocial, as well as operating on the lesbian continuum.
Blecki, Catherine La Courreye. “Reading Moore’s Book: Manuscripts vs. Print Culture and the Development of Early American Literature.” Milcah Martha Moore's Book: A Commonplace Book from Revolutionary America. Ed. Catherine La Courreye Blecki and Karin A. Wulf. University Park: Pennsylvania State UP, 1997. 59-106. Print.
Blecki meticulously details the manuscript culture of Moore’s time, and the origins and use of the commonplace book genre by Moore and her contemporaries. The role Moore played as editor, compiler and transcriber of MMMB is examined, revealing the careful and precise structure of the text. Comparison of Moore’s commonplace book to her published Miscellanies, Moral and Instructive in terms of function and goals allows Blecki to claim that “Moore’s Book is her true literary and cultural success” (69). The role and use of prose and poetry in MMMB are given equal attention by Blecki, and the theme of friendship in the entries is explored thoroughly, which I used for my project.
Brayman, Hackel H., and Catherine E. Kelly. Reading Women: Literacy, Authorship, and Culture in the Atlantic World, 1500—1800. Philadelphia: U of Pennsylvania P, 2008. Print.
The introduction provided me with a concise summary of current (feminist) scholarship and its struggles concerning defining the woman reader, and her literacy (reading and writing). Instead of searching for THE female writer, one should research and locate specificity rather than generalizations or idealizations. They repeat the call to expand the “archive” of women’s writings by thinking creatively about sources and evidence (3). The importance and necessity of a “transnational, transatlantic context” (6) is confirmed for those studying the early modern world. The transatlantic context appears in MMMB, as Moore includes excerpts from Graeme Fergusson’s journal that she kept while traveling in England. Moore herself is a transatlantic creature, born in Madeira and later relocated to Philadelphia, with family members on three different continents.
