British Literature 1660-1800: Digital Eighteenth Century, ENGL 521

British Literature 1660-1800: The Digital Eighteenth Century not only offeres an advanced introduction to the literature of the Enlightenment and Romanticism (1750-1830), but also introduces students to the range of projects, methods, and debates within Digital Humanities (DH). We will explore how DH might transform literary scholarship in the long eighteenth century. Will it allow scholars to discover new aspects of the literature they are studying? Can new digital tools work in tandem with qualitative analysis and close reading? Using a variety of digital tools (which will include the textual analysis program Voyant and the online database ECCO), we will explore the research and pedagogical opportunities offered by DH. While our course will explore the potential gains—scholarly, interpretive, and pedagogical—of using these digital tools, we will also discuss some theoretical and practical questions of researching, analyzing, and teaching literature using these technologies. For more information, see the course materials designed by Dermot Ryan and Melanie Hubbard: