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The Digital Archive as a Tool for Close Reading in the Undergraduate Literature Course

The Digital Archive as a Tool for Close Reading in the Undergraduate Literature Course This article focuses on the uses of the Early English Books Online (EEBO) database as a case study for how to introduce undergraduates to archival research. I provide four cases in which working with the digital archive has allowed my students to attend to variations in typography, spelling, capitalization, punctuation, and overall design in early modern printed texts. Working with the EEBO database challenges students to reconsider how a printed text represents a series of editorial choices; it encourages them to make persuasive claims about the differences in the appearance of an early modern lyric or dramatic text when it is situated in different contexts; it enhances the students’ ability to work independently and derive pleasure from the serendipity of the archive; and perhaps most important, it can actually help students develop a clearer and more effective practice of close reading in the twenty-first century. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Pedagogy Duke University Press

The Digital Archive as a Tool for Close Reading in the Undergraduate Literature Course

Diaz, Joanne T.
Pedagogy , Volume 12 (3) – Oct 1, 2012
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Copyright
© 2012 by Duke University Press
ISSN
1531-4200
eISSN
1533-6255
DOI
10.1215/15314200-1625244
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

This article focuses on the uses of the Early English Books Online (EEBO) database as a case study for how to introduce undergraduates to archival research. I provide four cases in which working with the digital archive has allowed my students to attend to variations in typography, spelling, capitalization, punctuation, and overall design in early modern printed texts. Working with the EEBO database challenges students to reconsider how a printed text represents a series of editorial choices; it encourages them to make persuasive claims about the differences in the appearance of an early modern lyric or dramatic text when it is situated in different contexts; it enhances the students’ ability to work independently and derive pleasure from the serendipity of the archive; and perhaps most important, it can actually help students develop a clearer and more effective practice of close reading in the twenty-first century.

Journal

Pedagogy – Duke University Press

Published: Oct 1, 2012

References

  • Should College English Be Close Reading?
    Bialostosky, Don
  • Fiat Flux
    Cloud, Random McLeod, Randall
  • New Scholarship, New Pedagogies: Views from the ‘EEBO Generation.’
    Crowther, Stefania; Jordan, Ethan; Wernimont, Jacqueline; Nunn, Hillary
  • Our Undemocratic Curriculum
    Graff, Gerald
  • The Rationale of Copy-Text
    Greg, W. W.
  • The Noisy Comma: Searching for the Signal in Renaissance Dramatic Texts
    Hammond, Antony McLeod, Randall
  • Easter Wings
    Herbert, George
  • Breaking the Book Known as Q
    Hutchison, Coleman
  • Close Reading, Closed Writing
    Murray, Heather
  • Spelling-Book Rules and the Capitalization of Nouns in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries
    Osselton, Noel E. Arn, Mary-Jo; Wirtjes, Hanneke
  • Reading for Form
    Wolfson, Susan J.
  • Should College English Be Close Reading?
    Bialostosky, Don
  • Fiat Flux
    Cloud, Random McLeod, Randall
  • New Scholarship, New Pedagogies: Views from the ‘EEBO Generation.’
    Crowther, Stefania; Jordan, Ethan; Wernimont, Jacqueline; Nunn, Hillary
  • Our Undemocratic Curriculum
    Graff, Gerald
  • The Rationale of Copy-Text
    Greg, W. W.
  • The Noisy Comma: Searching for the Signal in Renaissance Dramatic Texts
    Hammond, Antony McLeod, Randall
  • Easter Wings
    Herbert, George
  • Breaking the Book Known as Q
    Hutchison, Coleman
  • Close Reading, Closed Writing
    Murray, Heather
  • Spelling-Book Rules and the Capitalization of Nouns in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries
    Osselton, Noel E. Arn, Mary-Jo; Wirtjes, Hanneke
  • Reading for Form
    Wolfson, Susan J.