[en] A Digital Humanities Approach to Narrative Voice in The Secret Scripture: Proposing a New Research
MethodSonia Howell, University of Notre Dame, USA; Margaret Kelleher, University College Dublin (UCD); Aja Teehan, National University of Ireland, Maynooth, Ireland; John Keating, National University of Ireland, Maynooth, Ireland
Abstract
[en]
This paper is situated within debates surrounding modes of “close” and
“distant reading”
as they are played out in both the fields of world
literature and digital literary studies. It proposes an alternative digital
humanities approach to the study of world literature, advocating new methods of close
comparative reading rather than the mode of “distant reading” endorsed by Franco
Moretti and Alan Liu . Specifically, the research method
proposed here is focused on a close reading of the novel The
Secret Scripture (2008) by Irish author Sebastian Barry, with comparative
reference to Pat Barker’s well-known war novel Regeneration (1997). Through the development and implementation of a
digital humanities research method which facilitates new forms of digital literary
analysis, we demonstrate that close reading and digital humanities can too be
“practicing partners” in a way that serves to advance work in both the fields
of world literature and digital literary studies.
[en] Xpos’re: A Tool for Rich Internet PublicationsLeen Breure, Utrecht University & DANS (Dutch Data Archive); Maarten Hoogerwerf, DANS (Dutch Data Archive); René van Horik, DANS (Dutch Data Archive)
Abstract
[en]
Internet technologies are gradually reshaping the function of traditional
scholarly publications. There is a growing tendency in some disciplines to
publish a digital paper together with supplements such as images, videos,
3D-models and underlying data. More information requires a better usability in
terms of overview and finding information, which has led to new features in
journals and thus to modifying and extending this genre. These so-called
enhanced publications or rich internet publications have various physical forms:
PDF documents with embedded interactive models, HTML files enriched with
hyperlinks to contextual information and with facilities to highlight
information in the text, or aggregations of documents and other resources linked
together through metadata which make them findable for semantic search
engines.
However, many of the originally print-based journals, particularly in the
humanities and social sciences, are still rather conservative in format and
offer hardly any opportunities for enhanced publishing, which leaves room for
some form of self-publishing, perhaps as addition to a regular journal article.
In this paper we introduce the Xpos’re tools for authoring and displaying an
interactive multimedia scholarly publication, which may be created as a digital
companion to a regular journal paper and published, for example, on the author
or institution’s website in order to share related research products and to
achieve greater visibility. We also report about practical experiences with this
software in a few research projects.
The Xpos’re software (see: http://xposre.nl/software/) comprises a Flash-based document reader
and a set of extensions (plug-ins) that extend the basic functionality of this
text browser. The extensions are used to display specific types of multimedia
that provide additional functionality, such as viewing images, videos and
interactive maps. The input text is XML based, which not only guarantees a
durable and flexible encoding of content, but also allows automatic rendering in
different formats according to the preferences of users and the limitations of
their hardware. In addition, the XML source can be easily transformed to an RDF
resource map to meet the requirements of the semantic web. The document reader
generates output in HTML, in two flavors, namely a slide based version that uses
JavaScript, and a plain HTML text (single page), which is most suitable for
printing and which can be used to create e-books. This plain HTML text can also
be displayed in a format similar to that of scientific journals through the
Xpos’re HTML Reader, which has more features than the automatically generated
slides and which can be highly customized by the user.
[en] A Design Methodology for Web-based Sound ArchivesAnnie Murray, University of Calgary; Jared Wiercinski, Concordia University
Abstract
[en]
Well-designed digital tools facilitate the creation of new knowledge in the
humanities. Good design is user-centered, focused, and needs-driven, all of which
depend on a rich understanding of the target audience or end user. Unsworth’s
scholarly primitives and the work of Palmer, Teffeau
and Pirmann on scholarly information practices provide a
framework for understanding how humanities scholars do their work. We propose
applying this framework to the design of a spoken word archive, with the aim of
designing a digital tool that is optimized for the documented practices of scholars.
We propose that listening and annotation are key activities of humanities scholars
performing literary criticism of audio recordings. Taking the SpokenWeb poetry
project as an example, we discuss how designing a web-based tool with these key
activities in mind could facilitate close and critical engagement with recordings of
spoken poetry. We present a methodology for designing a web-based sound archive for
literary criticism and we propose features and functionalities that facilitate this
criticism.
[en] Burying Dead Projects: Depositing the
Globalization CompendiumGeoffrey Rockwell, University of Alberta; Shawn Day, University College Cork; Joyce Yu, University of Alberta; Maureen Engel, University of Alberta
Abstract
[en]
In the digital humanities we specialize in imagining and
launching digital projects, but we rarely consider how to
end them. In this paper we propose to discuss the ends of a
particular digital project as a case study for the planning
of ending. The project we focus on is the Globalization and
Autonomy Online Compendium that was developed as a digital
outcome of the Globalization and Autonomy project.
Specifically, this paper will:
Survey the general issues at stake when planning
for the end of a digital project;
Provide some background on the project and the
Compendium;
Discuss the underlying technologies that had to be
dealt with;
Address the specific problem of ending and how we
prepared this project for archival deposit;
And conclude by talking about some other ends
that are really beginnings.
[en] Escaping the Shallows: Deep Reading’s Revival in the Digital
AgeDavid Dowling, University of Iowa
Abstract
[en]
Among the many reactions against the digital revolution is a humanitarian
movement toward long form online reading in collective and social networks. This
movement — visible in online book clubs such as “Infinite
Summer” and 1book140, websites such as longreads.com, and the trend
of blogs-to-books publication — is a reaction against superficial increasingly
brief headline-driven Internet news. Called to action by the threat of what
critic Jessica Helfand has diagnosed as digital culture’s “narrative depravation,” the deep reading revival has
reclaimed narrative and returned it to the populace, transforming reading into
an act of mass collaboration on an unprecedented scale. Despite studies
corroborating Nicholas Carr’s claim in The Shallows
(2011) that the distractions of the digital environment are anathema to
immersive linear deep reading, online culture has actually enhanced and
accelerated the appreciation of longer richer works through its support of
“radial reading” as described by
Jerome McGann. This essay argues that while the intrinsically distracting
virtual geography of the Internet has threatened to diminish the role of
textured narrative in our intellectual and social lives, the Web has ironically
provided the media for the most salient movements in support of the deep reading
it threatens to obliterate.
[en] Canonical References in Electronic Texts: Rationale and Best
PracticesJoel Kalvesmaki, Dumbarton Oaks
Abstract
[en]
Systems of canonical references, whereby segments of written works are sequentially
labeled with numbers or letters to facilitate cross-referencing, are widely used but
seldom studied, undeservedly so. Canonical numbers are complex interpretive
mechanisms with a great deal of potential for anyone editing and using electronic
texts. In this essay I consider the rationale for and nature of canonical reference
systems, to recommend principles to consider when deploying them in digital projects.
After briefly reviewing the history of canonical references I note how they have been
used so far, emphasizing the advances made by Canonical Text Services (CTS). I argue
that the practical and theoretical problems that remain unaddressed require
engagement with descriptions of how textual scholarship works and how notional
literary works relate to the artefacts that carry them (using Functional Requirements
for Bibliographic Records, FRBR). By correlating a theory of canonical reference
numbers with those two models — editorial workflow and creative works — I offer key
principles that should be addressed when planning, writing, and using digital
projects.
[en] A review of Brett D. Hirsch (Ed.)’s
Digital Humanities: Pedagogy: Practices,
Principles, and Politics
Erik Shell, University of Maryland
Abstract
[en]
This is a review of Brett D. Hirsch (Ed.)’s Digital Humanities: Pedagogy: Practices,
Principles, and Politics.
