Pedagogy Oct 2012

The Digital Archive as a Tool for Close Reading in the Undergraduate Literature Course

Joanne T. Diaz

Abstract

This article focuses on the uses of the Early English Books Online (EEBO) database as a case study for how to introduce undergraduates to archival research. I provide four cases in which working with the digital archive has allowed my students to attend to variations in typography, spelling, capitalization, punctuation, and overall design in early modern printed texts. Working with the EEBO database challenges students to reconsider how a printed text represents a series of editorial choices; it encourages them to make persuasive claims about the differences in the appearance of an early modern lyric or dramatic text when it is situated in different contexts; it enhances the students’ ability to work independently and derive pleasure from the serendipity of the archive; and perhaps most important, it can actually help students develop a clearer and more effective practice of close reading in the twenty-first century.

Journal
Pedagogy
Published
2012-10-01
DOI
10.1215/15314200-1625244
Open Access
Closed
Topics
archival research qualitative research multimodality multilingual writers

Citation Context

Cited by in this index (6)

  1. Donnelly (2026)
    “We Have to Be Detectives”
    Pedagogy
  2. Carey (2021)
    Archival Play
    Pedagogy
  3. Enoch (2020)
    Rewriting a Woman’s Life (Online)
    Pedagogy
  4. Weeks et al. (2016)
    Making Ends Meet
    Pedagogy
  5. Edwards (2016)
    Unpacking the Universal Library
    Pedagogy
Show all 6 →
  1. Cook et al. (2015)
    Reading Communities in the Dickens Classroom
    Pedagogy

Cites in this index (0)

No references match articles in this index.

Also cites 5 works outside this index ↓
  1. Bialostosky (2006)
    Should College English Be Close Reading?
    College English  ↗
  2. McKenzie (1999)
    The Bibliography and Sociology of Texts
     ↗
  3. Murray (1991)
    Close Reading, Closed Writing
    College English  ↗
  4. Shor (1992)
    Empowering Education: Critical Teaching for Social Change.
     ↗
  5. Wolfson (2000)
    Reading for Form
    Modern Language Quarterly  ↗
CrossRef global citation count: 8 View in citation network →

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