data-collection engine

Students work with scholars on a current international research project "Electronic Literature as a Model for Creativity in Practice" (ELMCIP) in particular working on the development and editing of the Knowledge Base for Electronic Literature. The Knowledge Base is a scholarly, relational database programmed in Drupal that documents works, events and actors in the field of electronic literature. In addition to participating in practical project-based work with an established team of senior and junior researchers, students read scholarship on digital humanities as a field and explore and read articles related to the digital humanities.

In individual projects, students develop expertise in a particular field of research in e-lit. In that respect, the course offers students ways to create interpretative frameworks for a specific set of data and trains students in adapting "digital methods" critically. To be agreed upon with individual students skillsets and interests, practices in the course include:

reflective editing and documentation: researching, writing, and editing entries about electronic literature in the Knowledge Base
development: working on the Drupal backend to the Knowledge Base in collaboration with other project team members, either conceptually or taking part in the programming according to the students prior skills
web design and user interface development
project planning and implementation; team work and collaboration in academia

After completing the course, students will have assessed the usefulness of a range of digital humanities strategies in specific scholarly work, have experience in discussing organizational and design choices in developing a scholarly database, and have investigated in the community of electronic literature.

Note: The complete reading list appears in the attached syllabus.

Database or Archive Referenced

ELMCIP Electronic Literature Knowledge Base

Critical Writing Referenced

Debates in the Digital Humanities

Gutenberg Galaxy Revis(it)ed: A Brief History of Combinatory, Hypertextual and Collaborative Literature from the Baroque Period to the Present

Literary Machines Made in Germany. German Proto-Cybertexts from the Baroque Era to the Present

Making Connections Visible: Building a Knowledge Base for Electronic Literature

Toward a Semantic Literary Web: Setting a Direction for the Electronic Literature Organization’s Directory (2007)

Digital Litteratur: En innføring

Digital Poetry: A Look at Generative, Visual, and Interconnected Possibilities in its First Four Decades

Communitizing Electronic Literature