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SSHRC Research question #1

What aspects of reading cannot be accounted for by the types of digital textual analysis done so far in the digital humanities, and how can technology be used to account for such possibilities?

Most approaches to the electronic text assume that the text is “information,” and so apply linguistic computing models to the text. However, the information theory model of language is inadequate when it comes to a fuller understanding of the experience of language. By way of example, it is well-known that poetry cannot be translated, because there is much more going on in a poem than the simple communication of ideas. If the Enlightenment saw nothing but danger in the poetic text, because of its rhetorical nature (some even went as far as saying that anything in poetry could/should be expressed in prose), the 19th century was in part a reaction to such a limited view of language. There is nothing really to distinguish such an Enlightenment view of poetry from the information theory view of language, since both presuppose that language use does not alter the information. The literary text (and there has been a lot of debate as to what it actually is) can highlight the problem of language in special ways since a poem, for instance, has layers of (often conflicting) meaning and ambiguity that cannot be captured by the usual linguistic-semantic structures; nor can the signals and codes of information theory compute such things as rhyme, rhythm or enjambment within its own notion of communication. Furthermore, the experience of reading also entails much more in terms of association. As with 19th century French poet Rimbaud’s famous poem, “Voyelles”: because the reader can associate colours with vowels, what else happens when a reader encounters language that is rich with imagery, that is synaesthetic? Indeed, the poetic language from the mid-19th century on is increasingly rich in this sense, and has moved the linguistic experience beyond the common-sense notion of language that information theory represents. Yet, computing is rich in potential and can help us to see the text differently, even when we can only see the limits of such technology. The goal is to find new ways to explore the text with digital technology without limiting what the reading experience could be.

Much work has been done in terms of interface and display recently (cf. Drucker, and Ruecker, Sinclair et al.), and some with metrical and sound patterns using phonetic transcription (Plamondon). What are some of the ways of displaying poetry that allow us to see the text differently?

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