Digital humanities quarterly· 2017Q2
A Genealogy of Distant Reading
- 140citations
- Q2SCImago
- 2017year
Short summary
Distant reading, often conflated with digital humanities, has a distinct genealogy rooted in social science and literary studies predating computers, according to this essay.
AI-generated from the title and abstract; the full text is not read.
Key points
- Distant reading's genealogy predates the internet and is not primarily computer-based.
- The field emerged from a dialogue between literary studies and social science.
- Key early scholars include Raymond Williams and Janice Radway.
- Acknowledging the social-scientific roots can refocus research and clarify distinctions with digital humanities.
AI-generated from the title and abstract; the full text is not read.
Abstract
It has recently become common to describe all empirical approaches to literature as subfields of digital humanities. This essay argues that distant reading has a largely distinct genealogy stretching back many decades before the advent of the internet – a genealogy that is not for the most part centrally concerned with computers. It would be better to understand this field as a conversation between literary studies and social science, inititated by scholars like Raymond Williams and Janice Radway, and moving slowly toward an explicitly experimental method. Candor about the social-scientific dimension of distant reading is needed now, in order to refocus a research agenda that can drift into diffuse exploration of digital tools. Clarity on this topic might also reduce miscommunication between distant readers and digital humanists.
The authors' abstract, as published at the source. Digital humanities quarterly, 2017 · DOI ↗
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Field: Library and Information Sciences
Library and Information SciencesSocial Sciences