Database as Genre: The Epic Transformation of Archives

Database as Genre: The Epic Transformation of Archives

Archives

This article juxtaposes the database and the archive, creating the idea of database as its own genre. Folsom, one of the editors of The Whitman Archive, begins discusses how photography for Walt Whitman was a form of database and how the archive is now akin to what Deleuze and Guattari like to a rhizome. Folsom clarifies that an archive will always hold more information than a database but that information in a database is more flexible and moveable. Using information on the creation of The Whitman Archive and decisions made provides an idea of the scope of a large archival digital humanities project. Understanding that you can take documents that could not previously be seen side by side due to physical locale can now be viewed together creates an understanding of the details one must plan for while deciding on the direction of an digital archive project.

Folsom, Ed

2007-10

Elena Rogalle

Journal article

Folsom, Ed. 2007. "Database as Genre: The Epic Transformation of Archives." PMLA, 2007. 1571. JSTOR Journals, EBSCOhost (accessed November 30, 2015).