Bibliographic Data: Moretti, Franco. Graphs, Maps, Trees: Abstract Models for a Literary History. London: Verso, 2005.
Main Argument: Moretti is arguing for a literary history that is based on "distance reading," "where distance is however not an obstacle, but a specific form of knowledge" (1), and in which one moves from texts to models so as to get a sense of the interconnectedness of general elements. Rather than high theory, he draws on the natural sciences as an inspiration.
( Graphs, Maps, Trees )
Critical assessment: Give me a lever long enough and I'll move the world; the lever need not be particularly long if it is a book. It's sort of hard to critique a revolutionary text, and so it is with this one. One can only take what it says to heart in whichever way one pleases.
Further reading: Anne Burdic et al., Digital_Humanities; Stephen Ramsay, Reading Machines; Patrik Svensson, "The Landscape of Digital Humanities"
Meta notes: Don't miss the forest for the trees.
Main Argument: Moretti is arguing for a literary history that is based on "distance reading," "where distance is however not an obstacle, but a specific form of knowledge" (1), and in which one moves from texts to models so as to get a sense of the interconnectedness of general elements. Rather than high theory, he draws on the natural sciences as an inspiration.
( Graphs, Maps, Trees )
Critical assessment: Give me a lever long enough and I'll move the world; the lever need not be particularly long if it is a book. It's sort of hard to critique a revolutionary text, and so it is with this one. One can only take what it says to heart in whichever way one pleases.
Further reading: Anne Burdic et al., Digital_Humanities; Stephen Ramsay, Reading Machines; Patrik Svensson, "The Landscape of Digital Humanities"
Meta notes: Don't miss the forest for the trees.