About

Clemson University

Spring 2016

With the digitization of many literary texts, more kinds of literary data are available today than ever before. But what do we do with all of this data? How can we use computers to analyze literature, and, most importantly, why would we want to? This class will seek to answer these questions by exploring the “digital humanities,” a relatively new field of study in literature. The course complements the training in literary analysis that all English majors receive by providing an introduction to the digital methods being used today to study literature in new ways. We will experiment with a wide variety of digital methods, including text encoding, quantitative methods of text analysis, social network analysis, and data visualization. We will also read a shared literary text and talk about more traditional methods of literary analysis, like close reading. In all of our discussions, we will explore how digital methods can be integrated with traditional methods to make new discoveries about literature. Student projects will include semi-weekly lab reports, three papers, and a collaborative digital research project.