Between Waves and Trees: Digital Humanities and Comparative Reading of Texts

Bernard Franco

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Chapter 4 Between Waves and Trees: Digital Humanities and Comparative Reading of Texts

In: Literatures of the World and the Future of Comparative Literature

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Bernard Franco

Bernard Franco
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Type:: Chapter

Pages:: 28–36

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004547179_005

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Abstract

Digital humanities point to the digital tool as the instrument of such a deep transformation in culture as that brought about by the invention of the printing press in the era of humanism. They transform comparative literature by allowing the analysis of very large corpora. Franco Moretti uses the image of waves, as opposed to that of trees, to contrast the approach of comparative literature, based on large corpora, to that of national literatures. But Ana Paula Coutinho objects that the digital tool should not lose the pleasure of reading and the detailed analysis allowed by “close reading”: she thus speaks of “bifocal glasses” to characterize the ideal of comparative approach. If Carlos Fuentes condemns the idea of a unique type of reading, the digital humanities also transform the very idea of literature by allowing hyperfiction, demonstrating that literature is not limited to its textual dimension. Digital humanities thus make it possible to rethink comparative literature, reading, but also the very notion of literature.

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Literatures of the World and the Future of Comparative Literature

Proceedings of the 22nd Congress of the International Comparative Literature Association

Series: Textxet: Studies in Comparative Literature, Volume: 102

Cover Literatures of the World and the Future of Comparative Literature

E-Book ISBN:: 9789004547179

Publisher:: Brill

Print Publication Date:: 03 Aug 2023

Subjects
- Asian Studies
  - East Asia
  - Comparative Studies
- Literature and Cultural Studies

Front Matter

Part 1 Comparative Literature

Part 2 National Literatures and Diaspora Literature

Part 3 Translation Studies

Part 4 World Literature

Back Matter

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Chapter 4 Between Waves and Trees: Digital Humanities and Comparative Reading of Texts

Abstract

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Literatures of the World and the Future of Comparative Literature

Proceedings of the 22nd Congress of the International Comparative Literature Association

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