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Thanks, jono, but this has been stuck at number 242 for many months now, with no new winners or solutions

came to this late in the day and I have the grid complete, with the thirteen unclued letters, and the work in question (though it seems to have 2 extra letters - I wonder if one is meant to erase these - though the rubric doesn't seem to indicate this ... if we block out the 7 gaps, it gives us a line rather than a tunnel - it would make more sense to open the other eight - though that isn't indicated either ...

OK, I have the left & right columns and the linkage, and the corresponding missing thirteen letters ... but I'm at a loss as to what & where the nineteen thematic letters are. Any pointers?

early down clues, jvector

jvector - 19 letters of the completed grid spell out a work (several words). These are separate from the 13 letters mentioned in the rubric. But, the 19 letter work is related to what the 13 letters spell out in the completed grid along with the enumeration "errors".

prospero, I think you're barking up the same wrong tree (as I did at first) with the 19 letter title - there's nothing to erase. Check obscure works connected with theme. So how to submit? Shading is clearly impossible and the only way I can see of indicating the rest of it is, as another contributor suggested, by leaving gaps in the appropriate places. Is that what they want? Would it be too much to ask somebody from the illustrious national newspaper in question to enlighten us?

Thanks to Qaos for a fun puzzle - although it tests the Genius entry form to near destruction! The best I could manage was to enter the short answers with a gap in the appropriate place and indicate the highlighting by capitals. As to indicating alteration to the grid shading, that’s obviously out; but, for what it’s worth, I tend to agree with Prospero that, were it possible, lightening the relevant dark cells would be a more satisfying representation of the thematic material than shading the empty ones.

yes, capitals is a good idea!

I'm intrigued by the comments here that suggest that the theme is obscure. In the US, the work in question routinely makes "Top Ten .... of All Time" lists (I've seen it ranked as high as #2), and is nearly unavoidable if you pay the least bit of attention.

I am not quite sure it is #2 of all time, but it is very much worth engaging with if you have the time and inclination to do so.

(I think I have carefully tiptoed around the nature of the work)

I see the rubric remains unaltered - and you obviously can't "rework the grid's shading" as instructed ... I tried using different colours but that doesn't work. Normally I submit in capitals (since that's what you write in the grid) - but today I've used lower case + capitals for the "theme" and spaces for the supposedly filled-in blanks.