An Annotated Glossary

An Annotated Glossary

Below are a list of terms that commonly occur throughout our website that may not be familiar to the general reader, so in the spirit of accessibility we have glossed them for your convenience.

annotations: explanatory notes added to a text in order to provide the reader the necessary definitions, background, or contextual information to fully understand and appreciate the given work.
annotated edition: an edition of a literary work that features a text with annotations.
canon: or "literary canon," the body of works (poetry, fiction, drama, or other writings) considered to be the most influential or representative of an era, place, or culture.
critical edition: an edition of a literary work accompanied by scholarly apparatus (such as an annotated text, an introduction, an author chronology, literary criticism, etc.). For a list of contents commonly encountered in critically-edited texts, see The Critical Editor's homepage.
gloss: an explanation or annotation of a term or phrase.
humanities: the overarching academic discipline concerned with human culture whose branches include literature, language, history, philosophy, religion, law, art, and music.
public domain: in regards to texts, a work that is not protected by copyright or whose copyright has expired. Generally speaking, most works published prior to 1923 are in the public domain.

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An Annotated Glossary

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