FactGrid:Prose fiction data model

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Exemplary Items

• [Daniel DeFoe,] The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, vol. 1, 4th edition (London: W. Taylor, 1719).

Sample searches

• All novels with student affairs (genre/sujet)
• All stories of love and claims to power in Asian and ancient empires (genre/sujet)
• All novels in which a female protagonist assumes male identity — in which genres?
• All titles with the "... or ..." focus of the Novelas Exemplares

Basic requirements

Wikibase allows us to generate statements for any aspect we want to observe. There is, on the other hand no need to make all these statements. Make statements about objects when you want to explore these data in your research.

It is good practice though to make the following statements in any case, so that the item you create becomes operable in searches and can be used by others:

1. Label — should exist in the Item's language and in English, 250 characters. Best solution: just the beginning of the title with [...] when you want to skip passages and imprint information in brackets: (Place: Publisher, Year).
2. Description — again in the Item's language and in English: 250 characters, needed to individualise the item
3. Alias — use this for short cuts, state the common focus words like "Robinson Crusoe".
4. instance of (P2) — standard: "printed publication Item:Q20
5. title page transcript (P5) — see Gerhard Dünnhaupt for best practice, use | for line break and [rule], [vignette], [publisher's signet], [line of typographical ornaments] for common graphical elements
6. wider field of genres (P122) — "prose fiction" Item:Q195135
7. type of publication (P144) — usually "book publication" Item:Q14235, "instalment of a volume" Item:Q14234, "contribution to a publication" Item:Q14238
8. Qualifier: part of (P8) — to state the series in which the volume appeared.
9. Qualifier: published in (P64) — to state the issue of the Journal in which the title appeared
10. publishes (P254) — if the object publishes components that deserve individual items (to be handled as "contribution to a publication" Item:Q14238)
11. publishing interval (P292) — if you are speaking of a periodical that is publishing fiction
12. not to be confused with (P513) — if you see a version that almost looks the same

Locating the title and linking digital editions

1. holding institution (P329) — the library that has a copy which you can describe with particular sub statements:
2. Qualifier shelf mark (P10)
3. Qualifier exlibris (P413)
4. Qualifier bookbinding by (P413)
5. Qualifier with manuscript notes by (P352)
6. online digitisation (138) — you can also link specifically:
7. Google Books ID (P525)
8. MDZ ID (P526) — to link into Bavarian State Library digitisations
9. VD16 ID (P368)
10. VD17 ID (P369)
11. VD18 ID (P370)
12. PPN ID (P346) — persistent identifier for data sets of the German GBV library association
13. listed in (P124) — to refer to bibliographies and catalogues that noted the object
14. online transcript (69) — state the URL of an online e-text
15. instance of (P2) — lost object Q5
16. Qualifier last holding archive of the lost object (P348) — to state the last institution that had the (missing) object.
17. Qualifier cause of loss (P347) — e.g. "war damage"
18. Qualifier indication the object existed (P52) — to indicate how we know the Item existed.

Publishing history

1. originality of the item (P115) — e.g. "first edition", "new edition", "translation", "abridgement"
2. first published (P578) — to refer to the editio on top of the stemma
3. preceding in stemma (P233) — use conservatively to connect to preceding in genealogy or development
4. Qualifier connection in stemma (P233) — to state what is creating a difference in the Item
5. translation of (P63) — The work that was translated
6. begin of composition (P39) — use this property if a document has been written over a longer period of time
7. date of composition (P412) — use if a text for instance was composed far earlier than the copy extant
8. continuation of (P6) — state the preceding volume
9. continued by (P7) — state the next volume

Describing the Object

1. language (P18) — e.g. "German", "English"
2. format (P122) — "folio", "quarto" etc.
3. height (P122) — see illustration
4. width (P60) — see illustration
5. depth, thickness (P61) — see illustration
6. number of pages/ leaves/ sheets (P107) — the quick statement, just the numeral of the total number and your unit ("sheet", "page", "leaf")
7. collation <string> (P577) — to copy a catalogue statement of the books segmentation
8. Segmentation (P543) — if you are interested in the breakdown of the individual components from frontispiece, title page and preface to index
9. writing surface (P480) — "paper"

Publishing information as given

1. author (P21) — state who actually wrote the object in question.
2. author as (misleadingly) stated (P20) — give the information that is actually stated.
3. probable identification (P120) — if you want to propose a specific identification. Set a note (P106) to state your reasons.
4. contributor (P511) — e.g. an author who added an introduction
5. Qualifier: contribution (P224) — to state specific contributions (e.g. introduction) to a compound work
6. translated by (P24)
7. edited by (P176) — if someone is offering a new presentation of the text
8. commissioned by (P273) — for the person or institution who commissioned a work
9. subscribers (P275) — to state people who subscribed e.g. on a book publication (complete lists should be rather generated and linked)
10. Qualifier number of sets ordered (542) — to state the number of copies ordered in a subscription
11. dedicatee (P391) — the person who is being offered the dedication
12. place of publication (without fictitious information) (P241) — the place of publication to our best knowledge
13. place of publication as misleadingly stated (P240) — e.g. "Cologne" or "Pampelune" in fictitious imprints
14. Qualifier literal statement (P35) string input for the exact spelling
15. date of publication (P222) — State date according to best knowledge.
16. Qualifier date of publication as stated (P96) — to give the date that is stated e.g. on the imprint
17. Qualifier date of publication as (misleadingly) stated <string> (P112)
18. Qualifier precision of date (P467) — to determination the exactness of the previous
19. printed by (P207) — to name the company that printed a publication
20. published by (P206) — the company or person that is known to have published the item
21. publisher as misleadingly stated (P544) — e.g. Pierre Marteau, Cologne

To assess the responsibility of the publication

1. Context information about (Property:P828) to state author, publishing enterprise, translator for further evaluation
2. Qualifier Transparency (Property:P829) to state the transparency of the information with statements like Mentioned without obfuscation (Q221316) / Obviously a pseudonym (Q221317) / Misleading but plausible statement (Q221318) / Stated only halfway (Q402155) / "without statement" (Item:Q221319) / states where sold, instead of specifying the place of production (Item:Q221320) e.g. "Frankfurt und Leipzig" or just "London" / publisher hides behind partners (Item:Q221321) to state so called "trade publishers" who would act as front men in dubious publications.

Audience, reading and content

1. type of work (standardised) (P121) — Use this property to organise works according to types of production
2. type of work (as stated) (P582) — to state a self-classification in the respective language
3. Qualifier literal statement (P35) string input for an odd spelling.
4. Mode of presentation (P695) — to describe how a story is presented, e.g. as personal history of the central protagonist in a first person narrative
5. title aspects (P572) — For example, a person, an event, a moral can be in the foreground. If there is more than one information, add successively under P499 qualifiers
6. prospective audience (P573) — to note specific audiences addressed
7. reception promises (literal) (P570) — to mark the advertised reading gratification
8. topic (P243) — the central object of a work
9. Sujet (P576) — to note a tradition of works in which similar fields of subject matter are treated with the same techniques. Use the following grid for early modern fictional settings and the [respective grid historical localisations]
10. plot ingredients (P568) — big categories: War (Item:Q21630), Voyages (Item:Q80665), Love (Item:Q451051), Deceit (Item:Q451053), Intrigues (Item:Q451054), Secrets of trade (Item:Q451056), Political secrets (Item:Q451057), Vicissitudes of life (Item:Q451058), Moral improvement (Item:Q451059), Tragic ending (Item:Q451060), Happy ending (Item:Q451060), Utopia (Item:Q219464), Dystopia (Item:Q451062) — also incidents like "female protagonist assumes a male identity"
11. events mentioned (P532) — to refer to Items that have a P2-event statement
12. begin of events reported (P45) — to date the beginning of a historical narrative
13. end of events reported (P46) — to date the end of a historical narrative
14. places of action (P566) — property to be used especially on novels and plays
15. Qualifier: actual statement (P579) — if you have stated "Leipzig" while the text is speaking of "Lindenfeld", a place that also occurs in other publications ("Lindenfeld" needs an item for that purpose)
16. Qualifier: literal statement (P35) — if you want to state the exact wording
17. protagonist(s) (P567) — to link to (fictional) characters who appear in the novel (give P2+Item:Q102239/ Item:Q8811 statements on the respective items)
18. Social sphere of events (P569) — nobility, high nobility, military, students, middle class, lower classes
19. persons mentioned (P33) — to state other persons mentioned in a text, for instance rivalling authors
20. things mentioned (P256) — use widely for everything mentioned except people
21. institutions mentioned (P232) — state institutions mentioned in a document
22. texts mentioned (P116) — to state open references to other texts
23. inter-textual allusions (P574) — to state implicit references to other texts; use P116 for other texts that are actually mentioned
24. quoting (P306) — to state text(s) that are quoted by the object in question
25. digest (P724) — to give a short digest of the text
26. coding key (P114) — to refer to a "key" (published separately)
27. self-statement on historicity / fictionality (P565) — use this property into four directions. The centre is marked by the poetical tension between "high", "heroic" sujets and "low", "satirical" plots (not to be confused with the tensions between elegant books of the belles lettres and the cheap production of popular chap books). The polarity left room for a middle level of modern "novels" that would avoid the stereotypes of the heroic high and low and focus on "intrigues" rather than "adventures". The poetical options were at the same moment used to blend fictions in the historical production. Here authors (and publishers) would either "nothing but fiction, romance" with a production that smelled of recent history or, opposingly defended the strict historicity of their titles against all the aspects of fictionality. The private and public subject matter would intensify the options: titles of public importance would be closer to the public field of history, the production was aiming at. (The numbers in brackets — (1) etc. — work as short cuts.)

 

		(3.1) Q221324 Heroical Romances: Fénelon's Telemach (1699)
(1) Q221322 Sold as romantic inventions, read as true histories of public affairs: Manley's New Atalantis (1709)	(2) Q221323 Sold as romantic inventions, read as true histories of private affairs: Menantes' Satyrischer Roman (1706)	(3.2) Q221325 Classics of the novel from the Arabian Nights to M. de La Fayette's Princesse de Clèves (1678)	(4) Q221327 Sold as true private history, risking to be read as romantic invention: Defoe's Robinson Crusoe (1719)	(5) Q221323 Sold as true public history, risking to be read as romantic invention: La Guerre d'Espagne (1707)
		(3.3) Q221326 Satirical Romances: Cervantes' Don Quixote (1605)

Exchange and development

1. answer on (P65) — especially useful as prefaces display a good amount of interaction between authors
2. answered with (P205) — to link to a title that reacts on the present
3. reviewed in (P135) — link to articles in contemporary journals and books
4. reviewing (P308) — to list reviews of titles in journals.

Stating Research

1. research projects that contributed to this data set (P131) — link to your project so that the text becomes part of the body you are exploring.
2. autopsy by (P411) — add your name, if you have seen the object in question (esp. when copies are not available elsewhere).
3. literature (P12) — to state published research
4. Qualifier page(s) (P54) — to give the page range within a work of reference
5. note (P73) — free notes, use this mostly as a qualifier to explain decisions
6. online information (P73) — not best practice but the easiest way to link to online information. If your online source has greater merits create an Item for it and state authors, date, etc.

All properties for publications

• all FactGrid properties for publications (Q77484)

• bibliographical core data (Q100931)
• contexts of other publications (genre, stemma etc.) (Q100932)
• language and content (Q77485)
• financial details on an edition (Q100933)
• fiction and dubious histories (Q221312)