American studies and related fields in the humanities have thus far been firmly based on narratives that grew out of an archive that was linear and physical. In contrast, new media follow a different logic: No matter which shape new media objects take on the surface –blogs, online videos, or even virtual worlds like SecondLife – underneath they are all databases. This course engages in the work of “digital humanities” to explore the tensions between linear narratives (with all their cultural and ideological implications) and new forms of knowledge construction and distribution in web 2.0 environments that are essentially database-driven.
If the works Walt Whitman, among them correspondence, notebooks, prose, etc., were formerly accessible in physical archives, accessible only to a handful of privileged researchers and students, they are now contained in the online Walt Whitman archive (whitmanarchive.org), an archive-as-database. How does this move from physical to virtual archive challenge or deconstruct some of the narratives formerly associated with Whitman’s work? And how has the nature of self-publishing changed, from Whitman’s Leaves of Grass to YouTube celebrities like Chris Crocker, Tay Zonday, or Amber Lee Ettinger?
Rhythmus | Tag | Uhrzeit | Format / Ort | Zeitraum |
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2 CP: facilitate group discussion in small groups, plus pecha-kucha presentation
3 CP: see above, plus reflective paper
Praxisstudien: This seminar is also available for Praxisstudien. Contact me for further information to develop a project in line with your interests.