Reading by Numbers

Katherine Bode

Description

An exploration of the critical potential of digital humanities and quantitative methods to produce new knowledge about literary and cultural history.

‘Reading by Numbers: Recalibrating the Literary Field’ is the first book to use digital humanities strategies to integrate the scope and methods of book and publishing history with issues and debates in literary studies. By mining, visualising and modelling data from ‘AustLit’ – an online bibliography of Australian literature that leads the world in its comprehensiveness and scope – this study revises established conceptions of Australian literary history, presenting new ways of writing about literature and publishing and a new direction for digital humanities research. The case studies in this book offer insight into a wide range of features of the literary field, including trends and cycles in the gender of novelists, the formation of fictional genres and literary canons, and the relationship of Australian literature to other national literatures.

Acknowledgements; List of Tables and Figures; Introduction: A New History of the Australian Novel; Chapter 1. Literary Studies in the Digital Age; Chapter 2. Beyond the Book: Publishing in the Nineteenth Century; Chapter 3. Nostalgia and the Novel: Looking Back, Looking Forward; Chapter 4. Recovering Gender: Rethinking the Nineteenth Century; Chapter 5. The ‘Rise’ of the Woman Novelist: Popular and Literary Trends; Conclusion: Literary Studies in the Digital Future; Notes; Bibliography; Index

Sujets

• HISTORY
• Literary criticism
• Literary theory

Informations

• Publié par: Anthem Press
• Date de parution: 01 juillet 2012
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780857284563
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 2 Mo

Extrait

Reading by Numbers

Anthem Scholarship in the Digital Age

Anthem Scholarship in the Digital Ageinvestigates the global impact of technology and computing on knowledge and society. Tracing transformations in communication, learning and research, the groundbreaking titles in this series demonstrate the farreaching effects of the digital revolution across disciplines, cultures and languages.

Series Editors

Paul Arthur – Australian National University, Australia Willard McCarty – King’s College London, UK Patrik Svensson – Umeå University, Sweden

Editorial Board

Edward Ayers – University of Richmond, USA Katherine Hayles – Duke University, USA Marsha Kinder – University of Southern California, USA Mark Kornbluh – University of Kentucky, USA Lewis Lancaster – University of California, Berkeley, USA Tara McPherson – University of Southern California, USA Janet Murray – Georgia Institute of Technology, USA Peter Robinson – University of Saskatchewan, Canada Geoffrey Rockwell – University of Alberta, Canada MarieLaure Ryan – University of Colorado, Boulder, USA Paul Turnbull – University of Queensland, Australia

Reading by Numbers

Recalibrating the Literary Field

KATHERINE BODE

Anthem Press An imprint of Wimbledon Publishing Company www.anthempress.com

This edition first published in UK and USA 2012 by ANTHEM PRESS 7576 Blackfriars Road, London SE1 8HA, UK or PO Box 9779, London SW19 7ZG, UK and 244 Madison Ave. #116, New York, NY 10016, USA

Copyright © Katherine Bode 2012

The author asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.

Cover photograph ‘Bookshelves’ © Alexandre DuretLutz 2006 Licensed under a Creative Commons AttributionShareAlike 2.0 Generic License

All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.

British Library CataloguinginPublication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

Library of Congress CataloginginPublication Data Bode, Katherine. Reading by numbers : recalibrating the literary field / Katherine Bode.  p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 9780857284549 (hardback : alk. paper) 1. Australian literature−History and criticism. 2. Publishers and publishing−Australia−History. 3. Booksellers and bookselling−Australia−History. I. Title. PR9604.6.B63 2012 820.9’994−dc23 2012013680

ISBN13: 978 0 85728 454 9 (Hbk) ISBN10: 0 85728 454 1 (Hbk)

This title is also available as an eBook.

II

II

Chapter 2

V

II

III

IV

Book Publishing: 1890s

The Cycle of Serial and Book Publishing

Literary Studies in the Digital Age

Chapter 4

II

C

TS

O

N

TEN

Introduction A New History of the Australian Novel

4

30

3

27

Critical Quantification: Book History and the Digital Humanities 13

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107

0

4

9

7

Multinational Domination? 1990s to 2000s

The End of Local Publishing? 1990s to 2000s

I

Quantitative Method and its Critics

IV

III

Serial Publishing

Book Publishing: 1830s to 1850s

Chapter 3

I

BeyondtheBook:Publishinginthe Nineteenth Century

i

x

8

1

7

113

I

Serial Publishing

Book Publishing: 1860s to 1880s

British Domination? 1940s to 1960s

The Golden Age? 1970s to 1980s

NostalgiaandtheNovel:LookingBack, Looking Forward

Acknowledgements

List of Tables and Figures

Feminist Literary Criticism and the Nineteenth Century

RecoveringGender:Rethinking the Nineteenth Century

3

4

7

4

8

105

7

5

6

7

2

0

I

8

Chapter 1

vi

III

I

V

Chapter 5

I

II

III

Conclusion

Notes

Bibliography

Index

READING BY NUMBERS

Book Publishing: 1860s to 1880s

Gender and the 1890s

The ‘Rise’ of the Woman Novelist: Popular and Literary Trends

Male Domination? 1940s to 1960s

Female Liberation? 1970s to 1980s

Beyond Gender? 1990s to 2000s

Literary Studies in the Digital Future

120

124

131

135

143

153

169

175

215

237

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Some of the arguments and ideas present in this book were initially explored in journal articles published inAustralian Literary Studies,Australian Feminist Studies,Cultural Studies Reviewand thethe Association for the Study of Australian LiteratureJournal of , and inResourceful Readingessays I coedited with Robert Dixon, a collection of .However, in these cases, what appears here is greatly expanded and significantly altered.Reading by Numbersalso includes a revised and extended version of an article published inBook History. Much of this book was written with the support of an Australian Postdoctoral Fellowship from the Australian Research Council at the University of Sydney and the University of Tasmania. It was completed at the Digital Humanities Hub at the Australian National University. There are many people who have advised and assisted me during this project. I am grateful to the colleagues who have read, and commented on, parts of this manuscript, or earlier versions of these arguments and ideas, including Mark Davis, Robert Dixon, Ken Gelder, Julieanne Lamond, Elizabeth Morrison, Nicola Parsons, Susan Sheridan, Ryan Walter and Elizabeth Webby. I am particularly grateful to Paul Eggert and Williard McCarty, who read, and incisively responded to, the entire manuscript, and to Leigh Dale, who has always offered me invaluable guidance and advice, including in the development and drafting of this book. For their friendship and encouragement during this project, my thanks goes to Miranda Harman, Rebecca Johinke, Kate Mitchell, Tara Murphy, Kaz Ross and Nicola Parsons. Tara also provided lots of very useful advice about collecting and processing the data inAustLit. I am also grateful to Anthem Press for helping me bring this book to press. Not a word ofReading by Numberscould have been written without the dedication and careful attention to detail of hundreds of people, most of whom I do not know. I am referring to the dedicated bibliographers who have developed theAustLit database during its long history and in its many incarnations. My work has also greatly benefited from detailed discussion with, and advice from, those I do know atAustLit, especially Carol Hetherington and Roger Osborne. I write these acknowledgements at a time when the future ofAustLitappears uncertain. It will be an enormous loss for Australian literary studies, and for current and future research in book history and digital humanities, if this database closes or is no longer maintained to its current level. I hope that, in demonstrating some of what is possible withAustLit, this book will contribute to the arguments for the ongoing funding of this resource and other digital archives.Reading by Numbersis dedicated to all who have worked atAustLit, and to the

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READING BY NUMBERS

careful scholarship, and fascinating permutations of bibliography, that this resource demonstrates. Finally, I am grateful, not only for support in the writing of this book but for all sorts of things, to my wonderful family, including my brother Michael (for answering many mathematical questions), my sisters Helen and Rachael (for always having time to talk and always encouraging me) and my parents (for everything – including proof reading). Very special thanks has to go to Ben Williams, for his patience during the long time it took to write this book, and especially for listening to me talk, at length, about quantitative methods and trends in literary history, while really wanting to talk about the latest books we’d both read.

Tables Table 1

Table 2 Table 3 Table 4

Table 5 Table 6 Table 7

Figures Figure 1

Figure 2

Figure 3

Figure 4

Figure 5

Figure 6

Figure 7

Figure 8

Figure 9

LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES

Top ten book publishers of Australian novels, 1830 to 1859 Top ten periodical publishers of Australian novels, 1860 to 1889 Top ten book publishers of Australian novels, 1860 to 1889 Top ten book publishers of Australian novels, 1890 to 1899

Top ten publishers of Australian novels, 1945 to 1969 Top ten publishers of Australian novels, 1970s and 1980s Top ten publishers of Australian novels, 1990s and 2000s

Place of first book publication of Australian novels, percentages, 1830 to 1899 (by decade)

Form of publication of Australian novels, percentages, 1830 to 1899 (by decade and date of first publication) Number of serialised Australian novels, published in Australia and total, 1860 to 1899 (twoyearly totals) Australian novels by category of publisher, percentages, 1945 to 2009 (fiveyearly averages)

Number of Australian novels, overall and by Australian, British and multinational publishers, 1945 to 2009 (fiveyearly totals) Australian novels by category of publisher, percentages, 1930 to 1969 (fiveyearly averages) Number of Australian novels by category of publisher, 1930 to 1969 (fiveyearly totals) Australian novels by category of publisher, percentages, 1970 to 1989 (fiveyearly averages) Australian novels (excluding local pulp fiction) by category of publisher, percentages, 1970 to 1989 (fiveyearly averages)

30 36 44 49 64 74 82

2

9

29

3

8

59

60

61

65

73

76

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READING BY NUMBERS

Figure 10 Australian novels by Australian and multinational publishers, percentages, 1950 to 1989 (fiveyearly averages) Figure 11 Australian genre/nongenre novels, percentages, 1970 to 2009 (twoyearly averages) Figure 12 Australian genre/nongenre novels published in Australia (excluding Horwitz and Cleveland titles), percentages, 1970 to 2009 (twoyearly averages) Figure 13 Australian genre novels by category of publisher, percentages, 1970 to 2009 (twoyearly averages) Figure 14 Proportion of locally published Australian novels by companies categorised by the number of Australian novels published per decade, 1970 to 2009 (by decade) Figure 15 Australian novels by gender of author, percentages, 1830 to 1939 (fiveyearly averages) Figure 16 Australian novels serialised, overall and by men and women, percentages, 1860 to 1899 (fiveyearly averages) Figure 17 Number of serialised Australian novels, by men and women, in Australian and British periodicals, 1860 to 1899 (fiveyearly totals) Figure 18 Australian novels published as books in Australia and Britain, overall and by men and women, percentages, 1880s and 1890s Figure 19 Australian novels by gender of author, percentages, 1945 to 2009 (fiveyearly averages) Figure 20 Number of Australian novels by gender of author, 1945 to 2009 (yearly totals)

Figure 21

Figure 22

Figure 23

Figure 24

Australian novels (excluding pulp fiction) published in Australia by gender of author, percentages, 1945 to 2009 (fiveyearly averages)

Men and women in the top twenty most critically discussed Australian authors, percentages, 1945 to 2006 (by decade)

Australian novels (excluding pulp fiction) by men and women, published by Australian and multinational companies (with and without Torstar), percentages, 1965 to 2009 (fiveyearly averages)

Number of Australian novels (excluding pulp fiction) by men and women, published by Australian and multinational companies (with and without Torstar), 1965 to 2009 (fiveyearly totals)

77

8

8

6

7

8

9

8

0

108

114

116

126

132

133

134

134

149

150