For this week’s blog post, you will need to read another scholarly article in the digital humanities, which is similar to the article by Tara Menon that you read for class. You can find the article at this link:
Porter, J.D. (2018). Popularity/Prestige. Pamphlets of the Stanford Literary Lab, 17.
Write a three paragraph summary and evaluation of the article. Your summary and evaluation should answer the following questions:
- What is the article responding to? In other words, what have others said or assumed that this piece is agreeing with, disagreeing with, or modifying?
- Who is the article responding to? What other scholars have made claims that this article is citing and analyzing? There are several, and you don’t need to discuss all, but here’s a clue: Porter’s article is Pamphlet 17 in a series–what other pamphlet is relevant, and can you figure out what its authors were arguing?
- What claim is the article making? What is its argument?
- What evidence is the article using to support that argument?
- What quantitative data is it including, and where did Porter get that data?
- What specific examples does the article use? That is, what authors/novels does Porter point to, and how does he use them to support his argument?
- How does the article use visualizations to support its argument?
- The article includes 11 figures. Select one and explain in a sentence or two what it means.
- What are the stakes of the argument? Why does it matter, and who cares?
To earn full credit on this assignment, your summary and evaluation must answer all of the above questions in enough detail to demonstrate a close, careful examination of the article. The writing does not need to be formal or polished, but it should be clear.