Editing Found manuscript (section)

== Analysis ==
The trope has been described as one of the tools of [[metafiction]].<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":3">{{Cite journal |last=Popa |first=Catrinel |date=2021 |title=Lost and Found Relics, Forgeries and Mystifications in 20th Century Historiographic Metafiction |url=https://www.philobiblon.ro/ro/articol/lost-and-found-relics-forgeries-and-mystifications-20th-century-historiographic-metafiction |journal=Philobiblon. Transylvanian Journal of Multidisciplinary Research in Humanities |language=ro |volume=26 |issue=2 |pages=169–176 |doi=10.26424/philobib.2021.26.2.02 |issn=1224-7448 |doi-access=free |archive-date=2024-09-03 |access-date=2025-03-13 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240903005450/https://www.philobiblon.ro/ro/articol/lost-and-found-relics-forgeries-and-mystifications-20th-century-historiographic-metafiction |url-status=live }}</ref> It has been used due to public's growing interest in real history, including in rediscovering works of ancient or popular authors [[Lost literary work|thought to be lost or unknown]].<ref name=":2" /> It is used by the authors to produce a [[sense of wonder]] (finding such a work can be a major plot point in a number of works) and a sense that they have discovered a rare, unique treasure.<ref name=":2" /> It is also used to blur the boundary between fiction and reality and enhance the narrative credibility, [[Pseudohistory|portraying fictional events as real]] and distancing the authorship of the text from the original author.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":2" /> The technique of extensive referencing of fictional works has also been discussed in the context of "promoting [[Literary forgery|a literary tradition (of hoaxes)]] while also parodying the academic methodology through which such traditions are consolidated".<ref name=":5" />

While often associated with fiction, the trope is also used in purported works of non-fiction, such as [[Washington Irving]]'s ''[[A History of New York|A History of New York from the Beginning of the World to the End of the Dutch Dynasty]]'' (1809). In addition to fiction, the trope has been found in historical chronicles, personal letters, periodical excerpts, and devotional works, among others.<ref name=":2" />

While some works portray themselves in their entirety as based on allegedly real source texts, in others, references to found manuscripts are a major plot point or a passing element of a narrative.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":2" /><ref name=":3" /> Some related works are structured around real stories or narrative plots of manuscripts that went missing (this has been described as a trope of "lost manuscript").<ref>{{Cite book |last=Evans |first=Nicola |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tpJ5DwAAQBAJ |title=Portable Prose: The Novel and the Everyday |date=2018-11-09 |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield |isbn=978-1-4985-6270-6 |editor-last=Cogle |editor-first=Jarrad |pages=145–62 |language=en |chapter=Missing Books |editor-last2=Fischer |editor-first2=N. Cyril |editor-last3=Rofail |editor-first3=Lydia Saleh |editor-last4=Smith |editor-first4=Vanessa}}</ref>{{Rp|pages=146–147}} Related is also the tradition of [[pseudepigrapha]] (a literary use of false attribution, leading to concepts such as [[Pseudo-Aristotle]] and similar).<ref name=":4" />

The trope has been occasionally criticized when the purported new work has been of a recently deceased author, published [[Posthumous work|posthumously]]; in which case it is more likely to be seen as a fraudulent or disrespectful activity.<ref name=":2" />