New Age Scholarship: The Work of Criticism in the Age of Digital Reproduction

New Age Scholarship: The Work of Criticism in the Age of Digital Reproduction

Digital humanities

In this article, Sean Latham discusses the changes to scholarly work since more and more archival work has become available through digital means. He examines how the constraints imposed by the former print-only text have been removed by digital technologies. Latham provides an examination of the digital archive using an experiment of how theoretical work can be encouraged by digital technology, proving that the digital archive can create a “transformative” mode of scholarly research. The digital archive, Latham claims, requires a “hybrid” type of scholarly work allowing for connections across texts to be accessed immediately. The article provides insights into electronic reproduction and how digital texts can move beyond the linearity of the printed form. An explanation of how a digital archive is translated into binary data constructing a hypertext can provide the user with the control over the text. Latham provides concise information about how scholars are no longer tied to the hierarchally organized version of a text, but rather, can go from a univocal approach to a multivocal one. Historical documents are now available to a vast majority of users.

Latham, Sean

2004

Elena Rogalle

Journal article

Latham, Sean. "New Age Scholarship: The Work of Criticism in the Age of Digital Reproduction” New Literary History, Vol. 35, No. 3 (2004): 411-426.