Literary Sampling and the Poetics of the Specimen

Abstract

This article examines two types of literary specimen: a sample of typeset pages distributed with a prospectus to advertise a projected work, especially in subscription publishing; and a representative example of an author, genre or period published in an anthology, often with critical commentary. Both types, widely current in their literal form, undergo metaphoric transformation when authors treat the specimen as a quasi-genre like the fragment or sketch, or a medium for artistic self-reflection on the possibilities of a given genre or style. Using examples by Keats, Coleridge and Hookham Frere, the article outlines a Romantic poetics of the specimen.