This seminar will explore methods in the sociology of literature and computational literary criticism–two methodologies that approach literary works as part of larger systems of relations between people, texts, technologies, and institutions. We’ll look at the data of literary study–from colonial lending library records to course syllabi–and what such they can tell us about how cultural works are produced, consumed, consecrated, and distributed. We’ll learn advanced techniques in computer-assisted reading and situate them within a longer genealogy that includes book history, critical archival studies, and Marxist literary theory.
