Companionate

Of the various genres and subgenres of academic prose, the "companion" entry is one of the oddest to write (if not to read).  Companions are normally introductions, gateways to a particular field, and they therefore tend to emphasize the current scholarly consensus about Person or Event X.  Even when "current scholarly consensus" isn't part of the charge, the topics appropriate for an introductory text usually default, of necessity, to well-trodden areas.  On the one hand, this state of affairs usually reduces the amount of time it takes to write the entry; on the other, it also lends itself to the threat of disappearing into an ocean of other scholars' voices, choking and flailing.    In my case, I'm typing away at an entry on a subject that has been very, very, very extensively studied (anthologized, even), and my own reading in the primary sources lends itself to "yup, that's true," not "despite what So-and-So argues..."  Still, thanks to the magic of GoogleBooks, I can at least provide some evidence from less-familiar periodicals, not to mention two books that were considered major contributions at the time, but which nobody reads now.  (Then again, that last seems to be the story of my professional life.) 

Comments

[Dr. Weevil]

Nice portmanteau word: "nthologized" = "anthologized" + "to the nth degree".
Or maybe it's just a typo.

[Miriam]

Come to think of it, it has been nthologized. But alas, only a typo, not cleverness.