Introduction to Digital Humanities

Prof. Dilip Barad

Presentation

Digital Humanities: An Introduction from Dilip Barad

Video Recording of the session with the students of Amity University, Jaipur

References

Admin, Dhai. “Nirmala Menon on Marrying Technology and the Humanities.” DHARTI (blog), October 9, 2020. https://dhdharti.in/2020/10/09/nirmala-menon/.

“Arts and Humanities Research Computing.” Accessed November 26, 2021. https://digitalhumanities.fas.harvard.edu/.

“Bichitra :: Online Tagore Variorum :: School of Cultural Texts and Records, Jadavpur University.” Accessed November 25, 2021. http://bichitra.jdvu.ac.in/index.php.

“Course | Electronic Literature | EdX.” Accessed November 26, 2021. https://learning.edx.org/course/course-v1:DavidsonX+D004x+3T2015/home.

DHARTI. “DHARTI.” Accessed November 25, 2021. https://dhdharti.in/.

Medium. “DHARTI India.” Accessed November 25, 2021. https://dharti-india.medium.com.

Dr. Kalyani Vallath. Cultural Studies Terms: Digital Humanities NEW AREA IN RESEARCH IN ENGLISH DEPARTMENTS, 2020. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3VcXXgmY9Rg.

Elijah Meeks. An Introduction to Digital Humanities - Bay Area DH, 2014. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AvZToQSX244.

“Events – Arts and Humanities Research Computing.” Accessed November 26, 2021. https://digitalhumanities.fas.harvard.edu/events/.

INDIAN MEMORY PROJECT. “HOME - INDIAN MEMORY PROJECT - FAMILY PHOTOS & NARRATIVES.” Accessed November 25, 2021. https://www.indianmemoryproject.com/home/.

edX. “Introduction to Digital Humanities.” Accessed November 26, 2021. https://www.edx.org/course/introduction-to-digital-humanities.

Joe Bray, Alison Gibbons, and Brian McHale. “The Routledge Companion to Experimental Literature.” Routledge & CRC Press. Accessed November 29, 2021. https://www.routledge.com/The-Routledge-Companion-to-Experimental-Literature/Bray-Gibbons-McHale/p/book/9781138797383.

Koehler`, Adam. “Composition, Creative Writing Studies, and the Digital Humanities.” Bloomsbury. Accessed November 29, 2021. https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/composition-creative-writing-studies-and-the-digital-humanities-9781472591968/.

“Mendeley Chrome Extension - Google Search.” Accessed June 9, 2022. https://www.google.com/search?q=mendeley+chrome+extension&oq=mendeley+chrome+extension&aqs=chrome..69i57j0i512l2j0i22i30l2j0i390l3.6881j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8.

Moral Machine. “Moral Machine.” Accessed November 29, 2021. http://moralmachine.mit.edu.

Partition Archive, 1947. “Www.1947partitionarchive.Org |.” Accessed November 25, 2021. https://in.1947partitionarchive.org/.

“Project Madurai.” Accessed November 25, 2021. https://www.projectmadurai.org/.

“Projects – Arts and Humanities Research Computing.” Accessed November 26, 2021. https://digitalhumanities.fas.harvard.edu/projects/.

Ryan, Marie-Laure, ed. Cyberspace Textuality : Computer Technology and Literary Theory. Bloomington : Indiana University Press, 1999. http://archive.org/details/cyberspacetextua0000unse.

Serious Science. Digital Humanities - Jeffrey Schnapp, 2014. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iYRExzsRC9w.

T, Shanmugapriya, and Nirmala Menon. “Infrastructure and Social Interaction: Situated Research Practices in Digital Humanities in India.” Digital Humanities Quarterly 014, no. 3 (September 25, 2020).

Wolfreys, Julian. “Introducing Criticism in the 21st Century.” Accessed November 29, 2021. https://edinburghuniversitypress.com/book-introducing-criticism-in-the-21st-century.html.

ICT for Research in Humanities

ICT / Digital Technologies for Research in Humanities

Highlights of the talk:

ICT (Information and Communication Technology) or Digital Technology.

From using ICT tools for Research to researching literature generated by digital technologies.

From using ICT as tool to researching Digital Technology as an object of study.

Information and Communication Technology (ICT) has been a vital tool for researchers in the Humanities for a long time. It has been used to research literature, review previous research, formulate hypothesis, collect data, and analyze information. ICT tools like Inflibnet, Google Scholar, Scopus, Web of Science, JSTOR, and virtual libraries such as Gutenberg, Google Books, and online book stores have been used extensively.

However, with the advent of digital technologies, the possibilities of research in the Humanities have increased significantly. The digital technology is acquiring the ability to think and create like humans. Its artificial intelligence is getting smarter, and its ability to process natural language is getting closer to that of humans.

Digital Technology for research in Humanities has several advantages. For example, tools like the CLiC web app, nGram Google Books, and tools for corpus linguistics provide new ways to analyze literary texts. ELAN is another tool that provides multiple ways to view annotations and supports the creation of multiple tiers. However, the use of digital technology for research in Humanities has its own challenges. For example, the question of morality arises when using AI and its potential for unconscious bias. The generative literature, being produced by computers, requires a new way of understanding and reading.

In conclusion, while ICT remains an important tool for research in Humanities, the increased capabilities of digital technologies open up new possibilities and offer new ways to analyze information. Researchers in the Humanities must be familiar with digital technology and take advantage of its benefits while addressing its challenges.

Video Recording of the session:

 

Digital Humanities: Introduction

Basic Introduction: Digital Humanities

The Dept. of English, KSKV Kutch University, Bhuj (Gujarat - India) organised one day symposium on the Future of English Studies (on 19th oct 2018). There were four talks on various topics like Comparative Literary studies (Prof. Kamal H Mehta), Literary Theory and Criticism (Prof. Sanjay Mukherjee), Interdisciplinarity and English Studies (Prof. Ravesinh B Zala) and Digital Humanities (Prof. Dilip P. Barad).

This audio track is raw recording of the talk on Digital Humanities.

In an elementary introduction to Digital Humanities, the speaker talks about:

1) Nomenclature of Digital Humanities

2) Function of Digital Humanities

3) Nature and Scope of DH

4) Necessities for the study of DH

5) Brief History

6) Research Questions which DH attempts to explore.

Research Prospects in Digital Humanities and Cyberspace Textuality

Research Prospects in Digital Humanities and Cyberspace Textuality

How to cite this paper:

APA Sixth Edition:
Barad, D. (2016). Research Prospects in Digital Humanities and Cyberspace Textuality. In S. Prajapati (Ed.), Research In Indian Languages: Problems and Prospects (First ed., pp. 35-56). New Delhi, India: New Bharatiya Book Corporation. Retrieved from http://dilipbarad.blogspot.com/2016/02/research-prospects-in-digital.html

MLA Seventh Edition:
Barad, Dilip. "Research Prospects in Digital Humanities and Cyberspace Textuality." Research In Indian Languages: Problems and Prospects. Ed. Sweta Prajapati. First. New Delhi: New Bharatiya Book Corporation, 2016. 35-56. <http://dilipbarad.blogspot.com/2016/02/research-prospects-in-digital.html>.

(If you cannot read properly here, please download PDF copy.)

Language Lab Review

The students are supposed to have first hand experience of language learning software and then give their feedback (review) in the below given form.

This blog has list of language lab software. You can have a look at it for better understanding of language lab software. CLICK HERE TO VIEW THE BLOG.

Check your understanding of Language Laboratory

Take this online test to chek your understanding of the history of lang lab, its importance in present and in future:

• Online Test 1
• Online Test 2

This presentation can be helpful in reviewing the language lab software.

Digital Language Lab - Self Access Center from Dilip Barad

If the online review form does not appear here under because of slow internet connection, CLICK HERE TO OPEN REVIEW FORM IN NEW WINDOW

• Summary of the Responses:

The summary of the review responses of students (Sem 4: Batch 2013-15) can be viewed here.

Teaching Literature through Technology: Play / Drama

As the use of technology in classroom is increasing day by day, it becomes important to make some serious observations on its usage and impact on the learners. I wish to write a trilogy of blog posts on poetry and fiction, as well. This is the first one one Play / Drama. 

Gujarat University, Ahmedabad

 I make extensive use of technology in my literature classes. The statement is not made in self-eulogy or from a sense of pride. I know, all teachers these days are using technology in their classrooms. So, it is neither new nor unique. Mine is just a humble attempt to see how far it works in the literature classrooms. And if I get some success with it, I am happy to share it with other teachers. This presentation was made for/in the Refresher Course in English Literature, organised by Academic Staff College, Gujarat University.
These were the points discussed with the help of various videos and select scenes from the stage performance of the plays:

Happy-Sad: Twin Masks

• Literature is made up of words. Colours, visuals, musical notes etc have no space in the aesthetic delight which literature gives through words to the readers.
• The use of visual mars the free play of imagination which words are capable of.
• There should be no medium between the words and the reader - if the literature is to be relished.
• But when it comes to plays, it becomes necessary to understand that plays are not meant to be read as poems or fictions are.
• Plays are to be performed and visuals of the performance is to be relished. Words on the page are not enough to give the beauty of play - the aesthetic delight lies in viewing the performance, rather than in reading it. Though, reading a play is also equally satisfying.
• To prove this point an interesting example is given in the presentation: refer to the slide on which Tom Stoppard and performance of 'The Tempest' is discussed.
• Well, some interesting scenes from 'Doctor Faustus' by Christopher Marlowe, 'Hamlet' by Shakespeare, 'Waiting for Godot' by Samuel Beckett, "The Birthday Party' by Harold Pinter were presented with important points. 

  

  All the world's a stage, And all the men and women merely players

• It was proved that the nuances of plays lies in the acting, dialogue delivery, pauses, silences, stage spectacle and several other stage devices. Reading a play, never gives the satisfaction which viewing a performance gives.
• However, in the classroom, while teaching the plays as texts, we cannot take students to the theatre to view the plays. Henceforth, we have bring in the video recordings of the play performances.
• Hey, there is a rub! There is a problem. The problem is inherent in video recordings of the performance which happens through 'camera'.
• This limitation is discussed in the slide on 'Camera as Technopoly'.
• Your queries, observations, suggestion are welcome in the comments below this blogpost.

Teaching Ideas: Teaching English Literature with the help of technology from Dilip Barad

Teaching Literature Through Technology: Play / Drama from Dilip Barad

Teaching Literatuer through Web 2.0 Tools: Does it Really Help? from Dilip Barad

Dilip Barad: In deliberation with participants of RC, ASC, Guj. Uni

Questions on session by Dilip Barad on ‘Teaching Drama through Technology’.

1.      The word ‘theatre’ has Greek theatron < theasthai at the root of its meaning. What does it mean?

a.       To read

b.      To watch

c.       To peform

d.      To act

2.      Which of the following gives appropriate difference between ‘Play’ and ‘Drama’?

a.       Play is a literary composition consisting of dialogues between various characters, epilogue, monologue, prologue and an end. Drama is the set up of the play, which includes the theater, the hall, the accessories, the green room, costumes, music and the like.

b.      They are synonymous without any difference as such.

c.       Play is ‘performance text’ and Drama is ‘play text’

d.      Drama is a literary composition consisting of dialogues between various characters, epilogue, monologue, prologue and an end. Play is the set up of the play, which includes the theater, the hall, the accessories, the green room, costumes, music and the like.

3.      With reference to which play, Tom Stoppard explained the difference between the performance text and play text to prove the point that visual/spectacle of the play is more important than textual reading?

a.       The Tempest

b.      Othello

c.       Hamlet

d.      Ariel

4.      In movie adaptation of which of the following play director has replaced curtains with mirror?

a.       The Birthday Party

b.      Waiting for Godot

c.       Doctor Faustus

d.      Hamlet

5.      In which of the following play, the menacing effect of silence and pause is generated with the help of tearing sound of newspaper and no dialogue or background score?

a.       Hamlet

b.      The Tempest

c.       The Birthday Party

d.      Doctor Faustus

6.      In which of the following play’s stage performance the fight between Good Angel and Bad Angel is presented quite dramatically?

a.       Doctor Faustus

b.      Waiting for Godot

c.       The Birthday Party
d.    Hamlet

Literary Criticism in the age of information: Digital Humanities

Literary Criticism in the age of information: Digital Humanities

Dilip Barad

The literary theories and criticism has witnessed several shifts in 20th Century. Beginning with 'New Criticism', it ran through 'Reception Theory', 'Stylistics', 'Russian Formalism', 'Structuralism', 'Marxism', 'Psycho-analytical school', post-structuralism', 'Feminism'; along with voices of Modernism, Post-modernism, post-colonialism, cultural studies, new historicism . . . and what not.

All these glasses (spectacles for some) gave us varied ways - colourful most of the times, 'cleared our vision if we have cataract' at times and also concave or convex on several occasions or a rainbow kind of spectrum passing through the prism glass. All these glasses transforms into mirror and we see our own self projected in your reading of literature.

However, it is important to inquire, what is the reason of such turns and twists in the 'studies' of the study of literatures?

Well, what John Wain (though said in some other context) wrote in 'Strength and Isolation: Pessimistic Notes of a Miltonolater' in Frank Kermod's The Living Milton (1960: Routledge) may have some answer to this shifting paradigms of 20th century.

He wrote: "The modern sensibility works in naturally with a medium like the cinema, with its endless fading in and fading out, its tracking, panning and all the rest of the devies for keeping dimension and angle in a continually shifting state . . . Symbolism on the one hand, the cinema on the other; concentration and discontinuity ..."

How far can we blame cinematic habit to these scenario is a debatable issue. But if it has a grain of truth, then what can we think about the sensibility of the man in the age of information - in an era of internet - the digital age - amidst flood of information and constantly changing world/reality? And what sort of theories and critical practices are we to confront in the 21st century?

The reading of these articles can help us make our position more sound and significant in the making and reading of 21st century literature:

What Is Digital Humanities and What’s It Doing in English Departments? Matthew G. Kirschenbaum.

A New Computer-Assisted Literary Criticism? Raymond G. Siemens

Research Prospects in Digital Humanities

Matthew Jockers's Macroanalysis: (Down load chapters from the book)

Uncharted: Big Data as a Lens on Human Culture

Humanities in the Digital Age

Marie-Laure Ryan quite categorically argues in ‘Introduction’ Cyberspace Textuality: Computer Technology and Literary Theory: “Computers were once thought of as number-crunching machines; but for most of us it is their ability to create worlds and process words that have made them into a nearly indispensable part of life. If computers are everywhere, it is because they have grown into ‘poetry machines’. The digital revolution of the last decade has let words on the loose, not just by liberating their semantic potential, as most avant-garde movements of the past hundred years have done, but in a physical, quite literal sense as well.” (Ryan). She further remarks which opens up the floodgates for those who wants to research on language on the screen: “Sometimes the words on the loose become malleable substance in our hands, as we grab them with a hand-shaped cursor, move them, erase them, banish and recall them, pull more words form under words, cut them out and paste them into a new context; sometimes they become actors and dancers on the stage of the computer screen, animated by the scropt of an invisible program; sometimes they fail to regroup at the end of their trip, and the screen fills up with garbage, dismembered text, visual nonsense, or surrealistic graphics. Whether we play with them or watch them perform for us, whether we control them or they rebel against us, electronic words never stand still for long, never settle down on a page, even when a copy is sent to the printer; for the printer merely outputs a lifeless replica, as still photograph of objects in motion.” (Ryan).

Any idea? Please share in comments . . .

Digital Humanities and Computer Assisted Literary Criticism from Dilip Barad

Cyberspace Textuality from Maitri Munjpara

Check your progress:

Click here to appear in online test 

Activity: (Give your response in the 'Comment' section below this post)

• Define Digital Humanities?
• What is it doing in English Departments? Write any three reasons out of six given in the article by Matthew G. Kirschenbaum.
• Do you think there is any need of it in the study / research of literature?
• Can it help in study / research of regional literature written in local languages (i.e. Hindi, Sanskrit, Gujarati, Marathi, Tamil, Telugu etc) as it helps in the study of literature in English?
• Write basic introduction about Ergodic Discourse. (Refer to the article titled as 'Research Prospects in Digital Humanities)

Works Cited

Aarseth, Espen. "Aporia and Epiphany in Doom and Speaking Clock: The Temporality of Ergodic Art." Ryan, Marie-Laure. Cyberspace Textuality: Computer Technology and Literary Theory. Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 1999. 285.

Aiden, Erez and Jean-Baptiste Michel. Uncharted: Big Data as a Lens of Human Culture. Global: Penguine, 2013.

Arnold, Matthew. "The Study of Poetry(1880)." 1909-14. Bartleby.com > TheHarvard Classics. 21 Jan 2014 <http://www.bartleby.com/28/5.html>.

Coldewey, Devin. "Data mining the classics makes for beautiful science." 20 Aug 2012. NBC News Technology. 21 Jan 2014 <http://www.nbcnews.com/technology/data-mining-classics-makes-beautiful-science-954577>.

Deresiewicz, William. "Professing Literature in 2008." The Nation (11 March 2008).

Dryden, John. "Of Drammatick Poesy." 1668.

English, James F. The Global Future of English Studies. First. UK: Wiley-Blackwell, 2012.

Frye, Northrop. "New Directions from Old." Frye, Northrop. Fables of Identity: Studies in Poetic Mythology. New York: A Harbinger Book, 1963. 264.

Frye, Northrop. "The Archetypes of Literature." Frye, Northrop. Fables of Identity: Studies in Poetic Mythology. USA: A Harbinger Book, 1963. 264.

Jockers, Matthew. "Characterization in Literature and the Macroanalysis Lab." 8 Jan 2014. Matthew L. Jockers. 21 Jan 2014 <http://www.matthewjockers.net/>.

—. "Macroanalysis: Digital Methods and Literary History." 2013. University of Illinois Press. 21 Jan 2014 <http://www.press.uillinois.edu/books/catalog/88wba3wn9780252037528.html>.

Kermod, Frank. 'Strength and Isolation: Pessimistic Notes of a Miltonolater' in The Living Milton (1960: Routledge)

Kirschenbaum, Matthew G. "What Is Digital Humanities and What’s It Doing in English Departments?" ADE Bulletin (2010): 7.

Levy, Pierre and Rikka (Tr. from French) Stewen. "Toward Superlanguage." SOH University of California-Irvine. 21 Jan 2014 <http://www.hnet.uci.edu/mposter/syllabi/readings/levy.html>.

McLemee, Scott. "Crunching Literature." 1 May 2013. Inside Higher Ed. 21 Jan 2014 <http://www.insidehighered.com/views/2013/05/01/review-matthew-l-jockers-macroanalysis-digital-methods-literary-history>.

Peacock, Thomas Love. "The Four Ages of Poetry." Literary Miscellany 1820.

Popova, Maria. "From Galileo to Google: How Big Data Illuminates Human Culture." 17 Jan 2014. brainpickings.org. 21 Jan 2014 <http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2014/01/17/uncharted-big-data/>.

Ricoeur, Paul. "Time and Narrative." Chicaco and London VOl III (1988).

Rockwell, Geoffrey, Peter Organisciak, Megan Meredith-Lobay, Kamal Ranaweera, Stan Ruecker, Julianne Nyhan. "The Design of an International Social Media Event: A Day in the Life of the Digital Humanities." digital humanities quarterly (2012): http://www.digitalhumanities.org/dhq/vol/6/2/000123/000123.html.

Ryan, Marie-Laure. Cyberspace Textuality: Computer Technology and Literary Theory. Ed. Marie-Laure Ryan. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1999.

Wikipedia, Contributors. Digital Humanities. 10 Jan 2014. Wikipedia. 21 Jan 2014 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_humanities>.