Dimensions of Scale: Invisible Labor, Editorial Work, and the Future of Quantitative Literary Studies
This essay calls for a conceptual reorientation of how quantitative methods in literary studies are currently framed, arguing for an expansion from a linear model bounded by the endpoints of distant and close to a space defined by multiple dimensions of scale. I explore the axis bounded by visible a...
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Veröffentlicht in: | PMLA : Publications of the Modern Language Association of America 2020-01, Vol.135 (1), p.23-39 |
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Format: | Artikel |
Sprache: | eng |
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Zusammenfassung: | This essay calls for a conceptual reorientation of how quantitative methods in literary studies are currently framed, arguing for an expansion from a linear model bounded by the endpoints of
distant
and
close
to a space defined by multiple dimensions of scale. I explore the axis bounded by
visible
and
invisible
as an example of one of the additional dimensions that might constitute this expanded conceptual frame. In demonstrating its potential for producing new knowledge, I examine the editorial work of two women abolitionists, Mary Ann Shadd (1823–93) and Lydia Maria Child (1802–80). I show how topic modeling and statistical analysis can help identify and describe their invisible editorial labor. I thus provide an additional layer of evidence in support of the argument that positions women, and black women in particular, at abolition's vanguard. I also show how both women employed editing as a method of community formation and world building. I conclude by extending the example of editorial work to the labor required to perform quantitative work today, underscoring the importance of expanding the frame in which quantitative methods in literary study are conceptualized and deployed. (LFK) |
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ISSN: | 0030-8129 1938-1530 |
DOI: | 10.1632/pmla.2020.135.1.23 |