Engl 304: Computing Technology and Culture
Literary Computing
Autumn Term 2007, Tuesdays 1830-2120
HC 2-7 and Rutherford 2-03
David S. Miall
In
this course students will be introduced to the field of literary computing,
broadly conceived. Literary studies primarily concerns itself with three activities:
reading, researching, and writing. The course will examine each of these three
sites, and explore the ways that digital technologies are augmenting or changing
the way we undertake these activities. As such, the course will develop the
literary and computer skills that students already have, although it will
not presuppose skills other than a basic familiarity with Windows and word
processing.
The course will introduce several specific technologies, such as the concordance (for text analysis and authorship study), statistical analysis, text encoding (for digital editions of literary works), web page encoding and design, and hypertext fiction. Except for two books (see below) the main readings and tools for the course will be provided online.
We'll
begin with how to design and place basic webpages online, and to use them
for constructing linked clusters of academic or fictional texts; as a part
of this we will later look at and critique recent examples of hypertext fictions
and the literary theory that they have generated. The concordance involves
a set of facilities for looking at word distributions, significant collocations,
etc., which have been used for stylistic study of texts and to explore authorship.
We'll make use of these and look at the statistical methods that may also
be called on to help verify particular findings. Text encoding is a way of
describing the features of a text, from layout on the page to items of content,
used in particular to support online editions of texts; it's something a modern
scholar now needs to be aware of. Overall the course will raise issues about
the nature of textuality, literariness, and modes of reading that have a broader
significance than the domain of literary computing.
Required texts
N. Katherine Hayles. Writing Machines. MIT Press, 2002.
Susan Hockey. Electronic Texts in the Humanities. Oxford University
Press, 2000.
Other readings: see below
Students' home pages and essays
Schedule (tentative)
| Date | Session; primary reading | Links, Assignments |
| Sept 11 | Initial meeting in HC 2-7 Introductions; basic web authoring; use of Dreamweaver, Putty; WinSPC3 |
AICT web support; test page; website setup; authoring summary (Word) |
| Sept 18 | further web authoring techniques; web design |
(email me the URL of your site) Kapoun (1998); Tognazzini (2003) Example websites |
| Sept 25 | special session, Natalie Sharpe (student services); critique of a literary website, to Rutherford [instructor absent, conference] |
Voice of the Shuttle |
| Oct 2 | E-texts; Concordances Hockey, Chs. 1-2; Finch (1995) |
Essay 1: Online essay, critique of website Project Gutenberg / Concordance |
| Oct 9 | Concordances, continued Hockey, Chs. 3-4; Fraser (2000) |
Web concordances |
| Oct 16 | Authorship studies; textual analysis; statistical analysis Hockey Chs. 5, 7; Holmes, et al. (2001) |
Stats examples / Graphs |
| Oct 23 | -- cont. Follow up readings. Olsen (1989); Fortier (1989) | |
| Oct 30 | Text encoding: TEI, etc.; digital editions Hockey, Ch. 8 |
Essay 2: Text analysis XML Guide; Digital Editions |
| Nov 6 | Hypertext: principles and applications Hayles, Chs. 1-2 |
Notes on Hayles, etc.; Reading and writing hypertext; Miall (1998) |
| Nov 13 | No class [Remembrance Day holiday] | |
| Nov 20 | Hypertext fiction Hayles, Chs. 3-4; Gardner (2003) |
Notes on readings; Electronic Literature Organization; Fisher, These Waves of Girls; Joyce, Twelve Blue; Readers' responses to hyperfictions |
| Nov 27 | Cyberculture | Essay 3: Reading hypertext / fiction
sampler Kroker (1996); Silver (2003); Resonance; Hyperfictions for Essay 3 |
| Dec 4 | Final exam | 2 hours, in class. Exam questions. |
Assignments
Essay 1. Online essay, critique of a literary website. Due Oct 2 (15%).
Locate and analyse a web site that presents a literary topic or text(s). Evaluate it in about 500 words, including link(s) to the site you are reviewing. How useful is it? How effective is the design? What critical principles does the site depend on or assume? Send me the URL of your review by October 2nd (I will locate it in the Students section of the course web site). Voice of the Shuttle (English literature page) is a good place to start searching.
Essay 2. Text analysis. Due Oct 30 (20%).
Acquire or create an electronic literary text. Explore it through the Concordance, and make an analysis using this tool. Evaluate the results and write a short paper (about 2 pages double-spaced, approx. 800 words) which you will locate on your web site, and hand in on paper. (Do not count reprints of tables from AntConc in your word count.)
Essay 3. Reading hypertext / fiction sampler. Due Nov 27 (35%).
Either offer a critical reading of a hyperfiction or produce a hyperfiction yourself; in either case, your text will amount to between 1500-2000 words; to be located on your website. (Avoid discussing either the Joyce or Fisher works discussed in class.)
Examination. In class. Dec 4 (30%).
Further reading
David Miall and Teresa Dobson (2001). Reading
hypertext and the experience of literature. Journal of Digital Information,
2.1.
David S. Miall (2003). Reading
Hypertext: Theoretical Ambitions and Empirical Studies. Jahrbuch für
Computerphilologie, 5, 161-178.
Jerome McGann, Radiant
Textuality (1996).
J. Yellowlees Douglas, Gaps,
Maps And Perception: What Hypertext Readers (Don't) Do. One of the few
considerations of the differences between reading text and hypertext.
Allen Renear and Jerome McGann, speakers in What
is text? A debate on the philosophical and epistemological nature of text
in the light of humanities computing research. ACHALLC99, University of
Virginia, June 1999.
Collections of essays: