Studies in Literature: Literature in the Digital Age
Course description
Digital technology is transforming the ways we produce, distribute, and study literature. Under the umbrella term "digital humanities," scholars are building electronic archives that put literary texts in historical, biographical, geographical, and other contexts; using computational tools to analyze and visualize the form and content of texts; creating new platforms for scholarly communication about texts; and trying to understand the larger cultural impact of the digital revolution. This course will undertake a close examination of all these developments while giving students hands-on experience with some basic tools for digital publication and textual analysis. Many of the activities in the course will revolve around SUNY Geneseo's recent efforts to create a digital edition of Henry David Thoreau's Walden. No programming knowledge necessary.
Learning outcomes
Individual learning outcomes
Students who have completed Engl 390 will:
- understand the major opportunities and issues that technology has created for scholarship, creativity, and teaching in the humanities
- be able to apply concepts from the humanities to the analysis of digital technology's social consequences
- understand some basic legal issues raised by the cultural opportunities and changes wrought by digital technology
- be able to apply some basic tools of the digital humanist to texts and teaching in the humanities
Community learning outcomes
The Engl 390-01 (Spring 2012) community will:
- be able to collaborate effectively in discovering and sharing ideas about digital technology and the humanities
- be able to collaborate effectively in acquiring and using digital tools useful in the humanities
- be able to collaborate effectively in designing and executing projects that apply digital tools to scholarship, creativity, or teaching in the humanities
Class time and place
- TR 1-2:15 p.m., Newton 205
Office hours
- TR 3-4, Welles 226
- Find me online via Google chat (pjschacht@gmail.com) or AIM (pepys84).
Tools you should have
- Kindle software for Mac or Windows PC (Kindle hardware not necessary)
- Geneseo Google Apps for Education
- TextWrangler (Mac) or Notepad++ (PC)
- Zotero
Texts you'll read (or read from)
- Yochai Benkler, The Wealth of Networks
- Lawrence Lessig, Free Culture
- Susan Schreibman, Ray Siemens, John Unsworth, eds., A Companion to Digital Humanities
- Clay Shirky, Here Comes Everybody
- Henry David Thoreau, Walden
- Additional selections noted in the schedule of readings below.
Blogs you should follow
- Dan Cohen
- Clay Shirky
- Rough Type
- Digital Humanities Now
- Techne
- Digital Humanities Questions and Anwers
Students with disabilities
SUNY Geneseo will make reasonable accommodations for persons with documented physical, emotional or learning disabilities. Contact Tabitha Buggie-Hunt, Director of Disability Services to discuss needed accommodations as early as possible in the semester.
Schedule
Date |
Assignment |
---|---|
Preliminaries |
|
1/17 |
What is Digital Humanities? |
1/19 |
How Do You Define Digital Humanites/Humanities Computing?; Patricia Cohen, 3 articles in NY Times "Humanities 2.0" series ("Digital Keys for Unlocking the Humanities’ Riches", "Analyzing Literature by Words and Numbers", "In 500 Billion Words, New Window on Culture") Tool: WordPress |
Week Two |
|
1/24 |
Thoreau, Walden, "Economy" through "Sounds" |
1/26 |
Walden, Chapters "Solitude" through "The Village"; Susan Schreibman, et al., Chapters 1, 3, 4, 5, 8; 3 articles from Science on culturomics (access through Milne Library website or find them here); Bloomsburg University Undergraduate "Manifesto" on Digital Humanities |
Week Three |
|
1/31 |
Walden, "The Ponds" through "House-Warming" |
2/2 |
Walden, "Former Inhabitants; and Winter Visitors" through "Conclusion"; Visit from Prof. Ed Gillin |
Week Four |
|
2/7 |
|
2/9 |
Excerpt from Adams and Ross, Revising Mythologies; Videoconference with Elizabeth Witherell |
Week Five |
|
2/14 |
Lawrence Lessig, Free Culture, Introduction and chaps. 1-5; Free Culture flash presentation; Helprin,"A Great Idea Lives Forever. Shouldn't its Copyright?"; Jefferson, Letter to Isaac McPherson;"Nineteenth-Century British and American Copyright Law" |
2/16 |
Clapper, The Development of Walden: A Genetic Text |
Week Six |
|
2/21 |
Lessig, Free Culture, chaps. 11-14; Robert Darnton et al.: "Google and the New Digital Future", "Google & the Future of Books: An Exchange"; "Can We Create a National Digital Library?", "Toward the 'Digital Public Library of America': An Exchange", "The Library: Three Jeremiads"; selections from The Public Index |
2/23 |
Benkler, The Wealth of Networks, 1-34 Visit from Jeff Cramer (Milne 208) |
Week Seven |
|
2/28 |
Benkler, The Wealth of Networks, 1-34 |
3/1 |
Benkler, 35-90 |
Week Eight |
|
3/6 |
Introduction to markup: HTML, XML, TEI |
3/8 |
Practice encoding |
3/13-3/15 |
Spring Break |
Week Nine |
|
3/20 |
In-class encoding |
3/22 |
Martha Nell Smith, excerpts from Rowing in Eden, Introduction to Emily Dickinson's Correspondences: A Born-Digital Inquiry; Sample Dickinson texts from the Versioning Machine |
Week Ten |
|
3/27 |
In-class encoding |
3/29 |
McGann, from Radiant Textuality: "Rethinking Textuality"; Benjamin, "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction" |
Week Eleven |
|
4/3 |
Jerome McGann, excerpts from Radiant Textuality: Jerome McGann, from Radiant Textuality: "The Rationale of Hypertext", "Deformance and Interpretation" |
4/5 |
N. Katherine Hayles, "Electronic Literature: What is it?"; Scott Rettberg, "Communitizing Electronic Literature" |
Week Twelve |
|
4/10 |
Andrews, On Lionel Kearns, Howe and Karpinska, open.ended; Waber and Pimble, i, you, we |
4/12 |
Clay Shirky, Here Comes Everybody, chapters 1-6 Videoconference with Amy Earhart |
Week Thirteen |
|
4/17 |
GREAT DAY |
4/19 |
Clay Shirky, Here Comes Everybody, chapters 1-6 |
Week Fourteen |
|
4/24 |
Shirky, chapters 7-11 |
4/26 |
Visit from Syd Bauman and Julia Flanders |
Week Fifteen |
|
5/1 |
Follow-up videoconference with Ron Clapper, Beth Witherell |
Final Meeting |
|
5/7, 12 p.m. - 3 p.m. |
Share essays, take stock |