This presentation explores Todd Presner's insightful work "Comparative Literature in the Age of Digital Humanities: On Possible Futures for a Discipline." It discusses how the field of Comparative Literature is evolving in the context of digital technologies, data-driven research, and global connectivity.

1. Comparative Literature in the
Age of Digital Humanities: On
Possible Futures for a Discipline
Todd Presner

2. Smt S.B Gardi, Department of English M.K.B.U Maharaja Krishnakumarsinhji Bhavnagar
Insiyafatema
Alvani
Roll No: 11
Email id:
insiyafatemaalvani@gmail.com
Hina Parmar
Roll No: 10
hinaparmar612@gmail.com
Presentors
Sem: 4 (M.A)
Paper No: 208
Paper Code: 22415
Paper Name: Comparative Literature
& Translation Studies
Topic: Comparative Literature in the
Age of Digital Humanities : On
Possible Future for a Discipline (2011)
Submitted to: Smt S.B Gardi,
Department of English M.K.B.U
Date -12 January 2024

3. 01
05
04
02
06
03
Abstract
Comparative
data Studies
Comparative
Authorship and
Platform Studies
What is Digital Humanities in
Comparative Literature?
Conclusion
Comparative
media Studies
Table of contents

4. Abstract
● After five centuries of print shaping society and culture, we're now in another
pivotal moment in history, akin to the impact of the printing press or the discovery
of the New World.
● The printing press revolutionized communication, literacy, and knowledge, paving
the way for the Reformation, Enlightenment, Humanism, and the emergence of
mass media.
● Both the influence of print and the "discovery" of the New World relied on
networking technologies. These not only facilitated the spread of knowledge into
different cultural and social realms but also connected previously separated
people, nations, cultures, and languages.
● In examining these technologies historically, we need a broad perspective that
encompasses seafaring and exploration, the establishment and expansion of
railways, the evolution of the global postal system, the invention of the electric
telegraph, the standardization of world time, the era of colonization, extensive
exploitation of natural resources, urban electrification, the growth of highways and
car culture, the ascent of transnational finance and technology conglomerates,
and the emergence of "new" media like radio, film, and television.

5. Key Points
1. We are in a major transitional moment in history due to new communication technologies like the internet and digital media. This
is transforming society, culture, economics, and education profoundly.
2. These technologies have a dialectic - they facilitate democratization but also new forms of control and violence.
3. Humanists must engage more deeply with digital culture production, access, and ownership. If new technologies are dominated
by corporate interests, how will our cultural legacy be rendered in new media?
4. We need to understand the specificity of digital media and how it transforms concepts like "literature" and "culture" which owe
much to the history of writing and inscription practices.
5. The article argues for three complementary futures for comparative literature: Comparative Media Studies, Comparative Data
Studies, and Comparative Authorship and Platform Studies.
6. Models like Wikipedia provide an example of open, collaborative knowledge generation that institutions of higher learning
should consider emulating.

6. Key Arguments
1.The changes brought about by new communication technologies are as profound and sweeping as the invention of print and
the discovery of the New World. We are in a major transitional moment in history.
2. These technologies have both liberatory potential through democratizing information, but also a dangerous capacity for
control and violence. There is an inescapable dialectical tension.
3. Humanists must involve themselves in debates about digital culture and technology to ensure corporate interests do not
dominate these spaces and our cultural legacy.
4. We need new critical methods and conceptual understandings to grapple with digital texts and culture, which transform
assumptions about mediation, authorship, discourse, etc.
5. The article puts forth comparative media studies, data studies, and authorship/platform studies as three avenues for a future
comparative literature adapted to the digital age.
6. Models like Wikipedia illustrate the power of open, collaborative knowledge production. Institutions like universities need
to think about how to integrate these models into learning.

7. ● Nicholas Negroponte, in "Being Digital" (1995), optimistically predicted the
transformative impact of technologies like mobile phones and social networking.
However, he acknowledged their potential for misuse, warning that they could be
used for violence and genocide, much like radio and railways in the past, despite
initial beliefs in their liberating effects. (Presner, 2007)
● Paul Gilroy analyzed in his study of “ the fatal junction of the concept of nationality
with the
concept of culture ” along the “ Black Atlantic, ” voyages of discovery, enlightenment,
and progress also meant, at every moment, voyages of conquest, enslavement, and
destruction.
● As we contemplate the future of Comparative Literature in the 21st century, inspired
by literary scholar N. Katherine Hayles, the challenge is to awaken from the "sleep"
induced by five centuries of print dominance (Hayles, 2002: p. 29).
● Similar to Walter Benjamin's approach in The Arcades Project (1928-40; 1999), it is
crucial to question both the media and methodologies used in studying literature,
culture, and society.

8. What is Digital Humanities in Comparative
Literature?
● Digital Humanities is a broad term encompassing interdisciplinary practices
that involve creating, applying, interpreting, and questioning various
information technologies, both old and new. These practices, found across
different university fields, go beyond traditional Humanities disciplines,
influencing how humanistic knowledge connects with communities beyond
the academic setting.
● Digital Humanities projects typically involve collaboration among humanists,
technologists, librarians, social scientists, artists, architects, information
scientists, and computer scientists. They work together on conceptualizing
problems, designing interfaces, analyzing data, and sharing knowledge with a
wider audience than traditional academic research. Importantly, Digital
Humanities expands traditional Humanities rather than replacing or rejecting
it.
● As expressed in the "Digital Humanities Manifesto" by Jeffrey Schnapp and
Todd Presner, it is crucial for humanists to actively engage in the cultural
battles of the 21st century, which are primarily shaped, contested, and

9. Comparative media Studies
● Digital media inherently embody hypermedia and hypertext, terms coined in 1965
by media theorist Theodor Nelson, who envisioned the conceptual framework for
the World Wide Web. According to Nelson, hypertext is a fundamental element in
this context.
Body of written or pictorial material interconnected in such a complex way
that it could not conveniently be presented or represented on paper, Such a
system could grow indefinitely, gradually including more and more of the
world’ s written knowledge.
● Comparative Media Studies suggests that scholarly output is not exclusively
unimodal and may not be textual. It emphasizes the design and interconnection of
various elements in the argument, whether it's a page, a folio, a database field,
XML metadata, a map, a film still, or another form of representation.
● Comparative Media Studies prompts a renewed exploration of fundamental
questions in our field: Who qualifies as an author? What defines a work? It raises
inquiries about the nature of a text, especially in an environment where any text is
potentially both readerly and writerly by anyone, echoing the ideas of Roland
Barthes (1986).

10. Instagram as a Creative Hub
Creative Works:
In the past, a "work" might be a painting in a gallery. Now, a single Instagram post – maybe a poem or a
painting – is also seen as a kind of creative work.
This is different from old times when only a few people shared their creative works. It's like everyone
gets to be a part of the creative conversation.
Much like individuals on Instagram, scholars in Comparative Media Studies explore how such platforms
alter perceptions of who can create and what we recognize as creative works.

11. Comparative data Studies
● Lev Manovich and Noah Wardrip-Fruin have given rise to the field of "cultural
analytics" in the last five years. This field employs advanced computational
analysis and data visualization tools to examine extensive cultural datasets.
● Comparative Data Studies allows us to use the computational tools of
cultural analytics to enhance literary scholarship precisely by creating
models, visualizations, maps, and semantic webs of data that are simply too
large to read or comprehend using unaided human faculties.
● Jerome McGann contends, in his analysis of "radiant textuality," that the
distinctions between the codex and electronic versions of the Oxford English
Dictionary showcase the electronic OED as a "metabook," consuming and
reorganizing all that the codex OED offers at a higher level (McGann).

12. Comparative Authorship and Platform Studies
● Web 2.0 defines a collaborative online space where we actively contribute, share content, and
collectively evaluate data. This era goes beyond passive browsing, emphasizing active
participation in creating, annotating, and assessing digital media and software, influenced by
the open-source movement. NDTV (New Delhi Television Limited), Quint, These examples
illustrate how Indian news websites have evolved to embrace the collaborative and
participatory nature of Web 2.0. Users can actively engage with the content, share it on social
media, and, in some cases, contribute their own content to the platform.
● Academic platforms like Grand Text Auto, USC's "Scalar," Rice University Press' Connexions, and
the Institute for the Future of the Book have delved into knowledge production and legitimacy
in the post-print era. These platforms reconsider authorship, design, peer review, and the
participatory aspects of scholarship. For example, think about Wikipedia. It's not like an old
encyclopedia made by a few experts.
● Transitioning from a web-based encyclopedia for "intellectual sluggards" involved in a "flight
from expertise," as characterized by Michael Gorman, former President of the American
Library Association (qtd. in Stothart).
Wikipedia, I believe, represents a truly innovative, global, multilingual
collaborative knowledge - generating community and platform for authoring,
editing, distributing, and versioning knowledge.

13. Conclusion
In conclusion, This article strongly argues that we are experiencing a big change in human history because of fast
improvements in digital communication technologies. The impact of these changes on society, culture, economics,
education, and almost every part of our lives is comparable to the significant shifts caused by the printing press and
the discovery of the New World.
These technologies bring about a crucial tension. On one side, they have the potential to make information, access,
and exchange more democratic. On the other side, there are new forms of control, exclusion, manipulation, and even
violence. Instead of being neutral developments, these changes demand active involvement from humanists and
scholars in comparative literature to make sure that the digital future is fair, just, and democratic in various digital
spaces. To meet this challenge, we must reconsider foundational concepts rooted in print culture and embrace new
approaches for understanding born-digital works.

14. References
Benjamin, Walter. The Arcades Project. Translated by Howard Eiland and Kevin McLaughlin, Harvard University Press, 1999.
Gilroy, Paul. The Black Atlantic: Modernity and Double Consciousness. Harvard University Press, 1993.
Manovich, Lev. "Cultural analytics: Visualizing cultural patterns in the era of 'more media'." Domus, 2009,
http://lab.softwarestudies.com/2008/09/cultural-analytics.html. Accessed 16 May 2010.
Negroponte, Nicholas. Being Digital. Knopf, 1995.
Nelson, Theodor H. "A File Structure for the Complex, the Changing, and the Indeterminate." In The New Media Reader, edited by Noah
Wardrip-Fruin and Nick Montfort, MIT Press, 2003, pp. 134-145.
Presner, Todd. “Comparative Literature in the Age of Digital Humanities: On Possible Futures for a Discipline.” Blackwell Publishing Ltd.,
vol. -, no. -, 2011, p. 15.

15. Thank You