PROJECT 2: Distant Reading Tottel (150 points)

This assignment will encourage us to inquire what a digital humanities approach might add to our already rich discussions of Renaissance poetry miscellanies and your own, individual analyses. Following Franco Moretti, we will consider the benefits of a distant (rather than close) reading approach, looking at the entirety of Tottel’s edition as one cohesive corpus.

Invention

Using visualization tools provided by the resource Voyant, you will work in groups to transcribe and look for patterns within Tottel’s edition and the digital version of the Devonshire manuscript. Play around: you will want to try at least two Voyant tools and compare and contrast the experience of using it to doing a traditional close reading of the text. Do you see any words that stand out or seem particularly significant? What are they? Are these words or themes you noticed when reading the Miscellany? As a group, you will select one Voyant tool with which to create a visualization. In class, you will explain to us what this visualization adds to our reading of the sonnets, why this particular visualization is unique or exciting, and highlight some conclusions you’ve drawn from studying the text in this way.

Individually, you will write a 3-4 page assessment of two central themes identified by your visualization, using textual evidence to support your point. Consider the following questions:

• After completing this exercise, how would you define Distant Reading? How useful might this type of analysis be for the study of poetry? What challenges do you see with this methodology?
• Do you recognize any patterns in these words? Are there any commonly used words that are surprising to you?
• Do the themes/words you’ve identified as most significant relate to Tottel’s choice of titles? Is his edition accurately representing the content of the sonnets? Why/why not?

Design

We will work in class to create a corpus of the Songs and Sonnets so we can upload the materials into Voyant. Your group will be evaluated based on the quality and clarity of your presentation, including:

• Your rationale for choosing a specific Voyant tool
• Your discussion of individual words/themes worth noting
• An explanation of what this particular visualization can add to our understanding of the edition as a whole

Grading and Deadlines:

Visualizations and Presentation (Week 13): 90 points

Thematic Analysis (Week 14): 60 points