Ashley Zizich

Senior Seminar

Rommell’s Literary Studies gives an outline of the beginnings of literary text production. The potential for electronic media was first used in the 60s and 70s to compile an assisted study of literature. I believe this author is saying that while speaking of literary theory, the computer does not hold any analytical power of its own, but it merely enhances the critic’s powers of memory by electronic means. The computer gives a complete database of findings that meet all the patterns set by the search criteria, but it takes human insight to really put the findings to use. I like this because while I know computers and their use are important, I believe at times we become too reliant upon their information. We often see something, for example, on social media and take it for face value. There are sources that may be reputable and some that may not be. It is hard to rely on the computer and one search engines findings when there is so much information to reach and some of it may be false.

Smith’s “What’s American Literary Studies Got to do with IT” was interesting because she gives a (long) example of how she was working on archiving manuscripts of Emily Dickinson and developing a scholarly website and a CD ROM to go along with her findings. I find it astounding that one of her colleagues reprimanded her for taking time to do this and was told that she was in the English department, not a computer science department. While this was in 1994, and people were ignorant to how important something like this could be for future use, I feel that that is easily seen in society today. By making images and works available for all to see that have been kept away in museum archives only for exclusive view, I believe should absolutely be done. It is like the old values that helped set up our nation, that everyone should at least get the opportunity to do well for themselves. It is just up to them how they choose to use them. Technology does have the opportunity to intervene positively while offering access to material that others would not be able to access. While this research and this data takes on a whole new set of encoding standards, and will need editors to be more responsible and accountable, this is still the direction I feel our literature needs to move in. She goes onto explain a work that uses Flash to tell a story with image and sound. To me, this sounds like any website. If you are doing research and go onto a site, there are always images for you to see as a connection to the research you are trying to gather.

Kirschenbaum’s article again, hammered it in that English studies are all about computers. Digital humanities are not going away. They are discussed in journals, books, conferences, institutes, centers. I like how social media sites were tied into her article and argument. Facebook, twitter, and blogs are all a social undertaking. It is networks of people working together and sharing research, compiling, and collaborating just as the works for digital humanities is. Blogs and twitter are linked to new technologies, but it is important.