About Manzoni in the Digital Age
The design and implementation of this course was supported with a Course Development Grant sponsored by the Institute for Digital Research in the Humanities at the University of Kansas awarded to Professor Crystal Hall in May 2012.
The goal of the course is to train students to work with the texts in order to generate discussion, data, and conclusions about the literature, history, and secondary criticism that we will read in the course. Rather than a traditional final research paper, the class will generate a website with the results of their work throughout the semester, a product that can serve as part of their own portfolios and also be a tool for other scholars working on The Betrothed. Given the potential work to be completed, each iteration of the seminar will work intensely with a limited number of chapters. As the course is offered in subsequent years, the material generated will build upon the accomplishments of previous classes. In keeping with the goals of standard analytical essays, students are expected to write reports, draw conclusions and evaluate reactions to their activities throughout the term, but by incorporating both textual and digital resources. The activities include:
Preliminary pedagogical discussions of this course were presented at the University of Kansas Teaching Summit in August 2012. Please consult the Prezi for that presentation for further information.
The goal of the course is to train students to work with the texts in order to generate discussion, data, and conclusions about the literature, history, and secondary criticism that we will read in the course. Rather than a traditional final research paper, the class will generate a website with the results of their work throughout the semester, a product that can serve as part of their own portfolios and also be a tool for other scholars working on The Betrothed. Given the potential work to be completed, each iteration of the seminar will work intensely with a limited number of chapters. As the course is offered in subsequent years, the material generated will build upon the accomplishments of previous classes. In keeping with the goals of standard analytical essays, students are expected to write reports, draw conclusions and evaluate reactions to their activities throughout the term, but by incorporating both textual and digital resources. The activities include:
- Generating a concordance for the English and Italian texts
- Using word clouds to spur discussion
- Mapping the movements of the principle characters
- Mapping the exchange of letters and flow of information
- Visualizing economic, spiritual, or political gains and losses
- Explore themes in secondary criticism
- Chart theme development using keywords in context
- Compare historical source texts with Manzoni’s novel
- Organize and disseminate results and conclusions
Preliminary pedagogical discussions of this course were presented at the University of Kansas Teaching Summit in August 2012. Please consult the Prezi for that presentation for further information.