| ENG287H1, Fall 2011 All lectures Wednesdays, 7-9pm MS 3154 |
Instructor: Adam Hammond Office: JHB 701 Office Hours: Tuesdays, 3-5pm E-mail: adam.hammond@utoronto.ca |
il miglior fabbri...
Current Notices
- This course concluded with the annoucement of our class project, "He Do the Police in Different Voices." This project is still ongoing.
Course Description
Ours is the first generation to study literature in the digital age. E-books are outselling paperbacks; online scholarly databases are superseding library stacks; new works are being composed, distributed, and consumed electronically. How fundamental is this shift toward digitization? How does it affect the nature of the literary text, and how does it impact our work as readers and critics?
This course explores the interpretive possibilities opened up by the proliferation of digital literary texts. We will use computer-assisted analysis and visualization to ask new questions about literature and to provide statistical grounds for answers to older questions—and we will learn how to integrate our findings meaningfully into our writing. By studying the technical foundations for the production of digital texts, and by collaborating in the production of a “class-sourced” electronic edition, we will learn how the encoding of literary texts affects the questions we can ask of them. By analyzing digital-born fiction—works that involve the reader directly through elements of gaming and interactivity—we will question how such texts alter the role of the interpreter and affect the task of interpretation.
Students will gain hands-on experience with and develop skills in quantitative textual analysis and text encoding with TEI. No programming experience is required.
Required Books
Marshall McLuhan's The Medium is the Massage (Gingko) is available from the University of Toronto Bookstore.
All other texts available online. (Links from syllabus below.)
Syllabus
- Items in green are to be read/explored/tinkered with before attending lecture.
- Items in black will be demonstrated during lecture; you are not required to visit them beforehand.
- Tutorials during the period indicated by the diagonal striped (
) pattern will take place according to the Rotating Computer Lab Tutorial Schedule described below.
| Date | Tutorial | Lecture |
| Sep. 14 | (None) | Introduction |
| Sep. 21 | (None) | Marshall McLuhan, The Medium is the Massage |
| Sep. 28 | The Medium is the Massage | Computer-Assisted Textual Analysis
|
| Oct. 5 | Computer-Assisted Textual Analysis | Rescuing Texts That Weren't Happy As Printed Books
|
| Oct. 12 | Rescuing Texts | Computer-Assisted Historical Research |
| Oct. 19 | Assignment #1 Due. Historical Research. | Computer-Assisted Stylistic Analysis.
|
| Oct. 26 | Stylistic Analysis | Introduction to TEI
|
| Nov. 2 | TEI | Major Archives and TEI in Action Introduction to Digital-Born Fiction. |
| Nov. 9 | TEI and Archives. Digital-Born Fiction. |
Stephen Marche, Lucy Hardin's Missing Period. |
| Nov. 16 | Assignment #2 Due. Lucy Hardin. | Lucy Hardin's Missing Period. Peroxide Comics, Escape from Friend Zone. Kate Pullinger and Chris Joseph, Inanimate Alice.
|
| Nov. 23 | Inanimate Alice, Essay Strategies. | |
| Nov. 30 | Short Essay Due. Exam strategies. | The Digital Text and Publishing Today
Exam Review and Presentation of "Class-Sourced Edition" |
Evaluation
Assignment #1: 15%
Assignment #2: 15%
Short essay (1250-1500 words): 25%
Participation in tutorial: 10%
Final examination: 35%