#  21L701 Literary Methods: Hacking the American Renaissance  

 





 Semester:   Fall 

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 Year offered:  2017 

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 Link: [Course Website](https://lit.mit.edu/subjects-by-semester/?semester=fall+2017&order_by=course_nu…) 

 

 

 

 [Wyn Kelley ](https://lit.mit.edu/people/wkelley/)

 MW 9:30-11 2-103

 Prereq: Two subjects in Literature  
3-0-9 HASS-H, CI-M; Can be repeated for credit

 We think of the digital age as a time of tremendous innovation in literary technology, producing new authors on a mass scale, as well as preserving and curating older books. This explosion in the technologies of reading is not, however, unprecedented. Because of disadvantageous copyright laws, nineteenth-century American writers had to find creative devices for producing, protecting, and disseminating their work: whether through private presses or self-printing (Walt Whitman and eventually Herman Melville), manuscript self-publication (Emily Dickinson), the networks of popular magazines (Harriet Beecher Stowe and Fanny Fern) or uses of public lectures, journalism, and photography for self-marketing (Frederick Douglass and Mark Twain). This class will examine the “literary methods” of American authors looking for readers. In order to understand these nineteenth-century innovations, we will also investigate 21st-century critical methods that have created sophisticated digital tools for reading the past. Students will assess different textual forms—manuscript, print, maps, photographs, illustrations, circulars—using the hands-on affordances of both old-fashioned libraries and state-of-the art digital databases. No technical expertise required.



 

 



 

 See also:- [ Past MIT Courses ](/course-categories/past-mit-courses)
- [ AY 2017/2018 ](/course-categories/ay-20172018)
- [ Fall 2017 ](/course-categories/fall-2017)