You raise an interesting question. I'm not sure whether there is a formal etiquette, but there are precedents in the print world. I have seen many footnotes in which an author acknowledged ideas or advice received in private correspondence. "If in doubt, acknowledge" is as good a rule as "if in doubt, apologize." Following both rules will rarely get you into trouble but will often keep you out of it.
Whether such acknowledgements occur ad locum or in a blanket form in a preface or initial note to a chapter is a practical matter. Authors who "put something in the middle" of a listserv (I use a lovely phrase by Herodotus) have made a public statement that is "out there" for argument. For a variety of practical I would be inclined to paraphrase or summarize rather than quote directly when using materials from a listserv. What authors say in such environments is public, but it lacks the considered force of a published book or articles, and you may do your authors a favour by not taking them at their word too closely.
On Dec 21, 2009, at 1:36 PM, Stuart Hart wrote:
> Dear colleagues,
> I would like to thank you all for your contributions to the thread on Timias which I started with my initial post on Friday. I am humbled by the fact that so many distinguished scholars have taken the time during this festive period to offer their thoughts to a mere doctoral researcher. Thank you very much indeed; it is greatly appreciated. Your comments have given me much to think about, and have certainly questioned some of my previous perceptions. To this end, I was wondering the extent I might be able to use some of the ideas exchanged. As a virgin poster on this list, I wasn't entirely sure of the ettiquette involved. Would colleagues mind if I cite some of their comments, or indeed quote from their exchanges in the body of my chapter? I realise that the discussion list is essentially a private one, and not in the public sphere. Therefore, colleagues might not wish for their comments, which might have been made in haste, to later appear in a thesis. However, I am eager to engage with some of the ideas expressed in the thread and don't wish to take credit for them myself.
>
> I would be very grateful to hear the list's comments.
>
> Thank you once again for your contributions. Have a happy and festive Christmas,
>
> Stuart Hart
> University of Birmingham.
> ________________________________________
> From: Sidney-Spenser Discussion List [[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of James C. Nohrnberg [[log in to unmask]]
> Sent: Monday, December 21, 2009 1:52 AM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: allegory and forced interpretations
>
> As A. C. Hamilton observed, all
> interpretations of The Faerie Queene
> are “Procrustean: a matter of finding
> several points common to the poem and
> some other discourse, and then
> aligning them, using whatever force is
> needed to spin one’s own tale” (2001
> edition, 17).
>
> Jim Broaddus
> --
> Retired, Ind. State.Univ.
> 2487 KY 3245
> Brodhead, KY 40409
>
> jcn:
>
> An allegory is an interpretation with
> an agenda--its own (i.e., it is a
> stringent or dubious construal or
> re-construal of significance by means
> of ideological retrofitting,
> programatic misconstruction, and
> ideational displacement):
>
> Compare Heidegger:
>
> Readers have taken constant offenseat
> th eviolence of my interpretations.
> Their allegations of violence can
> indeed be supported by this [present]
> text. Philosophicohistorical
> research is always correctly subject
> to this charge wherever itis directed
> against atempts to set in motion a
> thoughtful dialogue between thinkers.
> In contrast to the
> methods of historical philology,which
> has its own agenda, a thoughtful
> dialogue is bound by other laws--laws
> which are more easily violated. (Kant
> and the Problem of Metaphysics)
>
> Compare Gordon Teskey:
>
> The discharge of interiority
> accomplished by torture bears more
> than accidental resemblance to the
> process of allegorical interpretation.
> (Allegory and Violence)
>
> Compare Pope, "A receipt to make an
> Epic Poem":
>
> For the Moral and ALLEGORY. These you
> may extract out of the Fable
> afterwards, at your leisure: Be sure
> you _strain_ them sufficiently." (Peri
> Bathos, chap. xv)
>
> -- Jim N.
>
> [log in to unmask]
> James Nohrnberg
> Dept. of English, Bryan Hall 219
> Univ. of Virginia
> P.O Box 400121
> Charlottesville, VA 22904-4121
>
> --
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