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In this course, we will survey and discuss existing theoretical reflections of ‘Distant Reading’ to consider the pitfalls and opportunities of research conducted with these techniques. And we will develop the skills necessary for the use of these techniques. We will focus on specific tools that allow practice in both rule and data driven textual analysis. Each student will also compose research plans based on questions that can only or partly be solved using digital analysis of large-scale corpora. Together with a critical reflection on these tools, this course will be a good preparation for computational work outside and inside academia. We will not do any programming in this course, but useful starting points for those who wish to learn to code will be provided.
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In recent years new digital analytic techniques have generated much interest as well as discussions among literary scholars. The concept of ‘Distant Reading’, introduced by Franco Moretti served as a catalyst for these discussions, and his approach is the starting point of this course. What are the techniques that comprise ‘Distant Reading’, and what are the analytic powers ascribed to these techniques? Distant reading has been applied in worldwide research, conducted not only by literary scholars but also by cultural historians and media scholars. These fields are all involved in research on conceptual shifts in textual cultures, as well as shifts in stylistic trends in textual styles. This course is open to students in the RMA programmes Comparative Literary Studies and Nederlandse literatuur en cultuur, as well as students in other RMA programmes interested in new ways of analysing textual cultures. We will not only discuss these topics in theory, but enhance the students' learning by offering them training in relevant tools and techniques currently used in data and text analysis.
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Career orientation
This course offers students training in the most prominent current tools and techniques in data and text analysis. Together with a critical reflection on these tools, this course will prepare them for computational work outside and inside academia.
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