The Circuits of Reading the Digital: Some Models
Date
2012
Authors
Fromet de Rosnay, Emile
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Canadian Institute for Studies in Publishing Press
Abstract
In theorizing the digital text, I will take a two-pronged approach, considering a) what
aspects of reading cannot be accounted for by the types of digital textual analysis done
so far in the digital humanities, and b) how can technology (be “used” to) account for
such possibilities? To answer the second question, we need to stop seeing the computer
as a “means” (i.e., we “use” a computer), and start thinking about the computer itself
as a part of the literary process. This perhaps blurs the distinction between e-literature
and media studies on the one hand, and digital humanities on the other; however, it
presupposes that technology is not something to be feared (as “tampering” with the
text), but that it is rather something intrinsic, to be conceived of in its own terms.
Indeed, the computer can enhance the literary experience and highlight aspects of the
text that were not noticed before, and vice versa, in a sort of feedback circuit, bringing
with it hermeneutic questions that hitherto have been only indirect. What might we
discover from exploring the symbiotic relationship between the text and the machine,
and about the minds and bodies that encounter these? Such encounters occur not only
through visualization, but through sonorization and through the body. Such hybrid
encounters require a broader view of language than that provided by information
theory, which has apparently dominated digital literary studies. I will use my own
digital humanities project on the visualization of French poet Stéphane Mallarmé’s
works (http://mallarme.uvic.ca) to explore models of reading the digital.
Description
Keywords
Digital Humanities, Hypertext, Hypermedia, Reading, Mallarmé
Citation
Fromet de Rosnay, E. (2012). “The Circuits of Reading the Digital: Some Models.” Scholarly and Research Communication 3 (4), pp. 1-12.