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Lesson 1
Lesson 2
Lesson 3
Lesson 4
Lesson 5
Lesson 6
Guest Lectures

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General Notes

The main 'textbook' for the course (although one may question the terminology) is the Guide to Digital Resources in the Humanities (eds. Condron, Fraser, and Sutherland, 2000). A free copy will be issued to each student (if you have lost yours e-mail me: stuart.lee@oucs.ox.ac.uk). You may also wish to look at the (now defunkt) journal Computers and Texts (the last few issues - 1996-2000 - are on-line and contain some short articles on IT in teaching literature).After that a page has been mounted below for each class containing any on-line articles of interest, or articles and books in print.

English Faculty Library Collections

The main shelf-mark to look under for this course is B 7.30 (ground floor), and the occasional text in B 6.7 (ground floor, 'literary theory'). There are also collections of books in the Humanities Computing Unit (OUCS, 13 Banbury Road. Open 9-5 Mon-Fri). In terms of journals, many of the articles you will use are on-line of course, but the two main print journals are Literary and Linguistic Computing (the journal of the Association of Literary and Linguistic Computing Ü available in the Humanities Computing Unit or from Bodley K.9.94, or LMH Periodical Science Room); and Computers in the Humanities (journal of the Association for Humanities Computing Ü available in the Humanities Computing Room, or Boldey per 3962 r.665).

Secondary Reading for the whole course (if you have time browse through these)


Lesson 1: All classes to be held in the computer teaching room, St Cross Building, 4.00-5.30 Tuesday (wks 1-6)

Taught by: Dr Stuart Lee

Title: An Historical Overview of IT in English Literature

Aim:

  • Illustrate a range of packages developed throughout the 1990/2000s
  • Look at commonalities amongst the packages
  • See how the may have influenced subseqent designs

Software Used in Class (and page references are to the Guide to Digital Resources [2000]): Various CD-ROMs

Jack Kerouac ROMnibus

The Crucible

Macbeth

Poetry in Motion II

Class 1 Slides Now Available

Reading

(These are intended to give you a good overview of the types of areas in which IT has been applied to English literary studies. It is by no means definitive!):

Conner, P. W. 'The Beowulf Workstation: One Model of Computer-Assisted Literary Pedagogy' Literary and Linguistic Computing 6.1 (1991), pp. 50-58.

Hockey, S. Electronic Texts in the Humanities (Oxford, 2000) EFL B 7.30 Hoc. Read 'Why Electronic Texts?' pp. 1-10.

McGann, J.'The Rationale of Hypertext' in Sutherland (1997), pp. 19-46. A neat introduction to why humanities scholars are interested in electronic resources.

Robinson, P.'New Directions in Critical Editing' in Sutherland (1997), pp. 145-171. A good summary of how and why electronic editing and electronic editions are ïpopular'.

Sutherland, S., and Condron F. 'Literature in English and Other Languages' Guide to Digital Resources pp. 71-75

 

Weekly assignment:

1. Sit through the Internet for English on-line tutorial (designed to take around 20 minutes).

2. Using the criteria listed at http://www.hcu.ox.ac.uk/chc/course/evaluating.html look at one or more of the following web sites as if you were evaluating them:

3. Discuss your findings on the Bulletin Board.

 

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Lesson 2

Taught by: Dr Stuart Lee

Title: The Web and English Literature

Aim:

  • Get a good overview of the types of sites developed for English literature, and the pointers to those sites
  • Look at how design can be influenced by the aim of the site
  • Understand how one can evaluate sites

Software Used:

Internet for English,

Virtual Seminars for Teaching Literature

Voice of the Shuttle

Hamlet on the Ramparts

Reading

Condron F. 'Starting Points on the Internet' Guide to Digital Resources pp. 15-18

Histories of the Internet: World-Wide Web Consortium's (known as W3C) Little History of the Web, Gromov's History, and an archive of old browsers.

Internet for English - an on-line tutorial for literary students on using the Internet.

Other 'help':

Internet Glossary - you don't need to read this just refer to it if you are stuck!

Voice of the Shuttle - one of the definitive lists of web sites. Started out as just listing literary sites but has now expanded.

 

Weekly assignment:

Write a 2-3,000 word essay to be submitted in class in Week 3 critically reviewing and evaluating either a) an English literature web site; or b) an English literature CD-ROM.

 

Class 2 Slides Now Available

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Lesson 3

Taught by: Dr Stuart Lee

Title: Hypertext and Hypertext Novels

Aims:

  • Understand the basic principles of hypertext theory, and the main terminology
  • See how this is used in literature packages and sites
  • Look at hypertext fiction

Software Used:

Shakespeare's Life and Times, Victory Garden (excerpt) by S. Moulthrop, The Dream of the Rood (p. 89), Unreal City (p. 114).

Reading

Bush, V. 'As We May Think' (July, 1945). Originally published in The Atlantic Monthly this is often regarded as the pioneering article on hypertext theory.

Conner, P.'Lighting out the Territory: Hypertext, Ideology, and Huckleberry Finn' in Sutherland (1997), pp. 67-105.

JODI 1.7: Special issue on Hypertext Criticism (ed. Tosca) - http://jodi.ecs.soton.ac.uk/?vol=1&iss=7

Landow, G. P. Hypertext 2.0: The Convergence of Contemporary Critical Theory and Technology (Johns Hopkins 1997) EFL B 7.30 LAN - read Chapter 1: 'Hypertext: An Introduction', pp. 1-32.

Miall, D. S and Dobson, T. 'Reading Hypertext and the Experience of Literature' Journal of Digital Information 2.1 (August, 2001) - http://jodi.ecs.soton.ac.uk/Articles/v02/i01/Miall/

Tosca, S. (ed.) Other Gatherings - a gateway to articles and web sites devoted to hypertext, hypertext fiction, and interactive games.

Tosca, S. 'A Pragmatic of Links' Journal of Digital Information 1.6 (June 2000) - http://jodi.ecs.soton.ac.uk/?vol=1&iss=6

 

 

Weekly assignment:

Read J -L. Borges's short story 'The Garden of Forking Paths' - available in several collections of Borges's short stories.

Take a look at any of the following Hypertext Fictions:

To prepare for the final assignment look at '[Web] Usability - the Basics' and for disabled access see the W3C Accessibility page: Quick Tips, and BOBBY.

Class 3 Slides Now Available

OUP Visit: Sarah Ryan's Slides Now Available

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Lesson 4

Taught by: Dr Ylva Berglund

Title: Text Analysis Using Computers I: Literary Analysis

Aims:

  • learn about Computer-assisted Text Analysis
  • get an introduction to text formats and mark-up
  • use WordSmith Tools on literary texts.

Software Used:

WordSmith Tools (p. 227)

 

Class 4 Slides Now Available

Reading before class:

Primary Reading

Fraser, M. and Condron, F. 'Text Creation and Analysis' Guide to Digital Resources, pp. 191-200

Hockey, S. (2000) 'Stylometry and Attribution Studies' pp. 104-23.

Holmes, D. 'The Evolution of Stylometry in Humanities Scholarship' Literary and Linguistic Computing 13.3 (1998). pp. 111-117

Stubbs, M. Text and Corpus Analysis (Oxford: Blackwell Publishers Ltd., 1996) EFL B7.30STU - see Ch1. pp. 3-10, & Ch 4 pp. 81-100.

Secondary Reading

Barnbrook, G. Language and Computers (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. 1996) - BOD M98.E13328.

Burrows, J. F. 'Computers and the Study of Literature' in Butler (ed.) Computers and Written Text (Oxford: Blackwell. 1992), pp. 167-204. EFL B7.30BUT.

Leech, G. and Short, M. Style in Fiction: A Linguistic Introduction to English Fictional Prose (London: Longman, 1981). EFL B5.10LEE.

Mills, S. 'Post-Feminist Text Analysis' in Language and Literature: Journal of the Poetics and Linguistics Association 7.3 (1998), pp. 235-53. OLIS notes this as being available in the EFL, but otherwise see BOD P.E01031.

Van Peer, W. 'Pulp and Purpose: Stylistic Analysis as an Aid to a Theory of Texts' in Dutch Quarterly Review of Anglo-American Letters 14.3 (1984), pp. 229-248. OLIS notes that this is available in the EFL but otherwise see BOD Per. 269 e.870/43.

Weekly assignment

Look at:

Unlike WordSmith, these concordance tools are presented to you in a set context to be used on particular texts and with a certain (literary) purpose in mind. Compare the tools to WordSmith Tools and think about what differences, if any, you can find? Consider the general functions of the three tools as well as the way they are introduced to you (stand-alone or as part of a ready-made resource). Try to think of how they can be used for literature studies/teaching. Are there any benefits or draw-backs with either approach?
Discuss your ideas on the bulletin-board.

 

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Lesson 5

Taught by: Prof. Suzanne Romaine

Title: Text Analysis Using Computers II: Corpus Linguistics

Software Used:

WordCruncher and the ICAME corpora (pp. 59-62)

Class 5 Slides Now Available

Reading

Kennedy, G. An Introduction to Corpus Linguistics (London: Longman, 1998). EFL B7.30KEN.

Biber, D., Conrad, S., and Reppen, R. Corpus Linguistics : Investigating Language Use (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998). EFL C3BIB.

Aston, G. and Burnard, L. The BNC Handbook : Exploring the British National Corpus with SARA (Edinburgh : Edinburgh University Press, 1998). EFL B7.30AST.

McEnery, T. and Wilson, A. Corpus Linguistics 2nd ed. (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2001). EFL C3MCE.

 

 

Weekly assignment:

Write a 2-3,000 word essay to be submitted in class in Week 6 critically reviewing and evaluating the use of text analysis tools for the study of literature or language (using a specific example).

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Lesson 6

Taught by: Dr Stuart Lee

Title: Commercial Publishers and Ebooks

Software Used:

Literature Online

Microsoft E-Book Reader

Amazon's Free E-Books

WH Smith E-Books

Class 6 Slides Now Available

Reading

EBookAd - an excellent way to locate Ebooks

Flowers, S. 'E-Books and Libraries' ExLibris (April 2000 - http://marylaine.com/exlibris/xlib50.html)

Lee, S. 'E-Books: A Brief Guide' (May, 2001 - http://www.oucs.ox.ac.uk/ltg/reports/ebooks.shtml)

Nunberg, G.(ed.), The Future of the Book (Belgium: Brepols, 1996) - see mainly the chapter by Umberto Eco - English EFL Main Libr B7.30NUN

Riding the Bullet (Stephen King) - see the official Simon and Schuster page, available also from Barnes and Noble online, and Amazon! See also the Fanzine page (with reviews, press releases etc.). But is it all hype? See Zeitchik, S. 'The Revolution that Wasn't' Salon Books Site 2000 (http://www.salon.com/books/feature/2000/03/28/king/)

 

 

Weekly assignment:

None. Begin work on final assignment. In Week 9 you will be asked to submit:
  1. A Web Site (of around 3,000 words in text, i.e. c. 10 pages or more) - based around themes and topics presented to you in the class of Week 6.
  2. A Written report (c. 3,000) to accompany the site, detailing its scope, target audience, and so on.

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Guest Lectures

There will be a series of talks this term from guest lecturers. Details so far:

Venue: Owen Room, St Cross Building, 4-5pm, Mondays

4th Feb 'Is this Literature and Do we care? Writing in the Digital Age'

Sue Thomas, Artistic Director, trAce Online Writing Centre http://trace.ntu.ac.uk

Computers stimulate creative thinking but they also often produce an emotional and negative response in those who believe, like Theodore Rosak, that "the computer contributes nothing essential to the life of the mind". http://trace.ntu.ac.uk/opinion/theo1.htm Today we use computers and the internet to create new kinds of writing and new ways to read it, but can hypertext and multimedia ever produce 'literature'? And who gets to define 'literature' anyway? This talk looks at the way new media create new potentials and re-define the acts of writing and reading.

11th Feb 'Interactive Fiction. From Zork to Anarchy Online'

Susana Tosca, IT University of Copenhagen

18th Feb 'The way we talk now: using a computer corpus to explore contemporary language'

Lou Burnard, University of Oxford

In this talk, I'll discuss how a large computer held corpus such as the BNC (http://info.ox.ac.uk/bnc) can be used to explore both the variability and the norms of spoken and written language. Such exploration has important consequences for language learners but also for sociologists, for stylisticians, and for anyone affected by the recurrent moral panic about the decline of English.