ENGL2831: Literature and the Internet

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• To introduce students to a range of digital and computational methods for use in literary studies
• To consider appropriate critical approaches to digital phenomena
• To gain a broad understanding of key concepts in digital humanities
• To explore how literature has influenced Internet culture and how digital media have changed our understanding of the literary and of art more generally

• Can the Internet be literary? Is it all distraction and noise? Whats the relationship between an environment that monetises attention and slow, careful appreciation of the literary arts? Between code and books? What happens to digital artefacts when technologies become obsolete or when Internet culture moves on? Literature and the Internet explores these questions and more while introducing students to some fundamental concepts in the capacious field of digital humanities (DH). Students on the module should expect to gain familiarity with key concepts in digital content creation, analysis, curation, and preservation, as well as with a range of thematic topics such as digital aesthetics, techno-utopianism, algorithmic bias, hacktivism, AI art, and a range of complex problems and issues. The module will invite students to explore how literature has influenced Internet culture, how digital media have changed our understanding of the literary, and, indeed, how digital culture impacts our beliefs about what art is and can do. Authors and/or texts might include William Gibson; Neal Stephenson; Kathy Acker; Donna Haraway; Vint Cerf; John Barlow; Edward Tufte; amazon.co.uk; Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, etc; Patricia Lockwood; Kristen Roupenian; Mark Amerika; Espen Aarspeth; Kanye West; Janelle Mone; Onyx Ashanti; Nnedi Okorafor; print editions and digital archives by Jane Austen, William Blake, Emily Dickinson, Shakespeare, Walt Whitman, and others; Richard Powers; Iain Softley; Sam Esmail; the Wachowskis.

Subject-specific Knowledge:

• Students studying this module will develop:
• Knowledge of a range of digital techniques relevant to literary studies
• Knowledge of digital methods that augment their existing skills in close reading, such as distant reading, user studies, and awareness of the complex relationship between physical and digital reading practices
• Insight into nature of digital textuality
• Awareness of some key elements in the history of digital culture and
• Ability to critique and evaluate digital phenomena within their wider societal contexts

Subject-specific Skills:

• Students studying this module will develop:
• critical skills in the reading and analysis of digital texts and phenomena
• knowledge of a range of text analysis techniques
• knowledge of digitization techniques and encoding standards
• knowledge of coding principles in contexts such as data science, algorithmic criticism, creative computing, and/or cultural heritage
• critical awareness of the human and societal context of the use of digital technologies and applications
• awareness of the role of the digital in supporting or threatening equality, diversity, and inclusion
• understanding of the nature of digital textuality and digital reading, especially as compared to that in physical spaces
• an ability to critique digital objects and phenomena as texts in themselves
• awareness of the importance of digital preservation and the role of libraries and memory institutions in providing access to digital culture and heritage
• skills of effective communication, argument, and evaluative methodology for digital objects
• awareness of conventions of scholarly presentation, and bibliographic skills including accurate citation of sources and consistent use of scholarly conventions of presentation
• command of a broad range of vocabulary and an appropriate critical terminology

Key Skills:

• Students studying this module will develop:
• a capacity to analyse digital resources critically
• an ability to acquire complex information of diverse kinds in a structured and systematic way involving the use of distinctive interpretative skills derived from the subject
• competence in the planning and execution of essays, evaluations of digital and conventional literary material, and other outputs appropriate to a digital context
• a capacity for independent thought and judgement, and ability to assess the critical ideas of others
• skills in critical reasoning
• an ability to handle information and argument in a critical manner
• digital skills in the techniques described above
• organisation and time-management skills

• Seminars: encourage peer-group discussion, enable students to develop critical skills in the close reading and analysis of texts in various media, and skills of effective communication and presentation; promote awareness of diversity of interpretation and methodology
• Independent but directed reading in preparation for seminars provides opportunity for students to enrich subject-specific knowledge and enhances their ability to develop appropriate subject-specific skills.
• Typically, directed learning may include assigning student(s) an issue, theme or topic that can be independently or collectively explored within a framework and/or with additional materials provided by the tutor. This may function as preparatory work for presenting their ideas or findings (sometimes electronically) to their peers and tutor in the context of a seminar.
• Formative feedback: students will pitch their project proposals to peers and the teaching team through seminar activities and will receive formative feedback. The ability to give and receive constructive feedback within the context of a production team or research group is a core skill for those creating digital content. This will therefore equip students with valuable transferable skills.
• Coursework: tests the student's ability to argue, respond and interpret, and to demonstrate subject-specific knowledge and skills such as appreciation of the power of imagination in literary creation and the close reading and analysis of texts; they also test the ability to present word-processed work, observing scholarly conventions.
• Feedback: The written feedback that is provided after the first assessment allows students to reflect on examiners' comments, giving students the opportunity to improve their work for the second essay.

Students will pitch their project proposals to peers and the teaching team through seminar activities and will receive formative feedback.

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