ENGL 4795 - [Quantification: Literature that Counts]

Fall. Next Offered 2019-2020. 4 credits. Student option grading.

J. Lubin.

How does literature count? Language and numbers seem to be radically divergent—if not mutually exclusive—ways of representing the human world. And yet throughout history examples abound of literary works that attempt to incorporate, approximate, or travesty (and often all at once!) quantitative methods of counting, permutation, and computation in the linguistic medium of fiction. Is literature always expressive? Is quantification always cold? What does it feel like to be a number? When we analyze literature quantitatively, what can we see with fresh eyes and what do we miss? This course will introduce students to the fundamentals of literary critical analysis, including the emergent quantitative and computational tools of the digital humanities. We will read diverse works of literature to ground our investigation.