| Popis: |
This online presentation aims to raise awareness about the ongoing COST Action “Distant Reading for European Literary History” (2017-2021). In the context of this networking project, “distant reading” is understood as an umbrella term for recent computational, and particularly quantitative, approaches to the study of large collections of texts. While the contribution of the Distant Reading paradigm to Literary Studies continues to be a matter of intense debate, we believe that recent quantitative approaches clearly provide an important methodological perspective that usefully complements, and at times challenges, more established approaches to literary history and theory in areas like authorship attribution, genre analysis, periodization, canonization and intertextuality. Fostering insight into cross-national, large- scale patterns and evolutions across European literary traditions thanks to its 26 participating countries, this COST Action aims to facilitate the creation of a broader, more inclusive and better- grounded account of European literary history and cultural identity. In terms of scientific objectives, the Action is currently coordinating the creation of a multilingual European Literary Text Collection (ELTeC) which will be used to establish best practices and develop innovative methods of Distant Reading for the multiple European literary traditions. Finally, we will use the experience of building ELTeC to investigate the theoretical consequences of Distant Reading approaches for literary history and literary theory, focusing in particular on the ways that the digital turn affects our understanding of the traditional literary definitions of the novel, the canon and literary periods. |
