image of person or book cover 7751135813133004335.jpg
Cover image courtesy of publisher.
Issue Details: First known date: 2018... 2018 A World of Fiction : Digital Collections and the Future of Literary History
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

'During the 19th century, throughout the Anglophone world, most fiction was first published in periodicals. In Australia, newspapers were not only the main source of periodical fiction, but the main source of fiction in general. Because of their importance as fiction publishers, and because they provided Australian readers with access to stories from around the world—from Britain, America and Australia, as well as Austria, Canada, France, Germany, New Zealand, Russia, South Africa, and beyond—Australian newspapers represent an important record of the transnational circulation and reception of fiction in this period.

Investigating almost 10,000 works of fiction in the world’s largest open-access collection of mass-digitized historical newspapers (the National Library of Australia’s Trove database), A World of Fiction reconceptualizes how fiction traveled globally, and was received and understood locally, in the 19th century. Katherine Bode’s innovative approach to the new digital collections that are transforming research in the humanities is a model of how digital tools can transform how we understand digital collections and interpret literatures in the past.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

    • Ann Arbor, Michigan,
      c
      United States of America (USA),
      c
      Americas,
      :
      University of Michigan Press ,
      2018 .
      image of person or book cover 7751135813133004335.jpg
      Cover image courtesy of publisher.
      Extent: 260 p.p.
      ISBN: 9780472130856 (hbk), 9780472900831, 9780472123926 (ebook)
      Series: y separately published work icon Digital Humanities Ann Arbor : University of Michigan Press , 2013 14344640 2013 series - publisher criticism

Works about this Work

Aboriginal Mobilities and Colonial Serial Fiction Sarah Galletly , 2021 single work criticism
— Appears in: Australian Literary Studies , 30 April vol. 36 no. 1 2021;

'This article combines Indigenous mobility studies with recent work on seriality and periodical form to examine how the structural necessities of serialised periodical fiction reinforced representations of settler and Aboriginal mobilities for Australian readers across the nineteenth century. It considers the limits or gaps in the project of Australian settlement that these serial texts highlight through an exploration of how settler authors formulated ideologically acceptable and more ‘suspect’ manifestations of Aboriginal mobilities and persistence. Building upon Katherine Bode’s work in World of Fiction (2018) on Aboriginal presence in nineteenth-century Australian periodical fiction, this article considers how the structure of the serial itself worked to reinforce – and occasionally disrupt – perceptions of Aboriginal-settler frontier violence and white supremacy. It also explores moments of settler discomfort and unsettlement in these serial texts that operate as counterpoints to the larger imperatives of this periodical fiction to support and reinforce the colonial project. By aligning the disruptive potential of these serial narratives and their representations of Aboriginal and settler mobilities, I argue we can uncover moments when these texts appear to resist the rhetoric of forward momentum and advancement traditionally associated with narratives of colonial modernity.' (Publication abstract)

Speculative Bibliography Ryan Cordell , 2020 single work criticism
— Appears in: Anglia : Zeitschrift Fur Englische Philologie , September vol. 138 no. 3 2020; (p. 519-531)

'This article proposes speculative bibliography as an experimental approach to the digitised archive, in which textual associations are constituted propositionally, iteratively, and (sometimes) temporarily, as the result of probabilistic computational models. Speculative bibliography is offered as a complement to digital scholarly editing, and as a direct response to the challenges of scale and labour that will make comprehensive editing of digital archives impossible. Rather than acting on specific, individual texts, a speculative bibliography enacts a scholarly theory of the text through a computational model, reorganising the archive to evidence a particular idea of textual relation or interaction. Such models, in which textual relationships are determined by formal, internal textual structures, constitute bibliographic arguments that can be verified, amended, extended, or contested on either humanistic or computational grounds.' (Publication abstract)

Review of A World of Fiction : Digital Collections and the Future of Literary History, by Katherine Bode Kenneth M. Price , 2019 single work review
— Appears in: Australian Literary Studies , July vol. 34 no. 1 2019;

— Review of A World of Fiction : Digital Collections and the Future of Literary History Katherine Bode , 2018 single work criticism

'Katherine Bode has written a bold and illuminating book. A World of Fiction: Digital Collections and the Future of Literary History asks difficult questions and is groundbreaking in its interpretations. Treating Australian literature with tools and insights drawn from digital humanities, her work has important implications for literary study writ large.'

Source: Abstract.

[Review] A World of Fiction: Digital Collections and the Future of Literary History Elizabeth Webby , 2018 single work review
— Appears in: Script and Print , vol. 42 no. 3 2018; (p. 183-188)

— Review of A World of Fiction : Digital Collections and the Future of Literary History Katherine Bode , 2018 single work criticism
'So begins a journey of looking for the lost by learning from the Register about printed texts that no longer survive. Hill offers several examples of how the Register has informed research before revealing her own findings. A set of four chapters explores five different popular genres. One chapter is dedicated to ballads, many of which (even with the determination of some very enthusiastic collectors) have been lost; and this, despite ballads, of entertainment and news, making up nearly 43% of all entries in the Stationers’ Company Register in the 1560s (35). Another chapter is dedicated to news. This is an excellent contribution as many projects investigating printed news have focused primarily on foreign news. Hill’s work unpacks a “number of news markets in early modern England, both for publishers and consumers,” including “foreign news, domestic news, supernatural tales, serial publications and single-issue news items” (100). A third chapter examines religious print, acknowledging the complexities of such publishing in a period of religious upheaval (130). The last genres explored are those of learning and leisure. These two rich veins of enquiry are handled well and illustrate “the variety of print available for early modern readers in England” (166).' (Introduction)
Review of A World of Fiction : Digital Collections and the Future of Literary History, by Katherine Bode Kenneth M. Price , 2019 single work review
— Appears in: Australian Literary Studies , July vol. 34 no. 1 2019;

— Review of A World of Fiction : Digital Collections and the Future of Literary History Katherine Bode , 2018 single work criticism

'Katherine Bode has written a bold and illuminating book. A World of Fiction: Digital Collections and the Future of Literary History asks difficult questions and is groundbreaking in its interpretations. Treating Australian literature with tools and insights drawn from digital humanities, her work has important implications for literary study writ large.'

Source: Abstract.

[Review] A World of Fiction: Digital Collections and the Future of Literary History Elizabeth Webby , 2018 single work review
— Appears in: Script and Print , vol. 42 no. 3 2018; (p. 183-188)

— Review of A World of Fiction : Digital Collections and the Future of Literary History Katherine Bode , 2018 single work criticism
'So begins a journey of looking for the lost by learning from the Register about printed texts that no longer survive. Hill offers several examples of how the Register has informed research before revealing her own findings. A set of four chapters explores five different popular genres. One chapter is dedicated to ballads, many of which (even with the determination of some very enthusiastic collectors) have been lost; and this, despite ballads, of entertainment and news, making up nearly 43% of all entries in the Stationers’ Company Register in the 1560s (35). Another chapter is dedicated to news. This is an excellent contribution as many projects investigating printed news have focused primarily on foreign news. Hill’s work unpacks a “number of news markets in early modern England, both for publishers and consumers,” including “foreign news, domestic news, supernatural tales, serial publications and single-issue news items” (100). A third chapter examines religious print, acknowledging the complexities of such publishing in a period of religious upheaval (130). The last genres explored are those of learning and leisure. These two rich veins of enquiry are handled well and illustrate “the variety of print available for early modern readers in England” (166).' (Introduction)
Aboriginal Mobilities and Colonial Serial Fiction Sarah Galletly , 2021 single work criticism
— Appears in: Australian Literary Studies , 30 April vol. 36 no. 1 2021;

'This article combines Indigenous mobility studies with recent work on seriality and periodical form to examine how the structural necessities of serialised periodical fiction reinforced representations of settler and Aboriginal mobilities for Australian readers across the nineteenth century. It considers the limits or gaps in the project of Australian settlement that these serial texts highlight through an exploration of how settler authors formulated ideologically acceptable and more ‘suspect’ manifestations of Aboriginal mobilities and persistence. Building upon Katherine Bode’s work in World of Fiction (2018) on Aboriginal presence in nineteenth-century Australian periodical fiction, this article considers how the structure of the serial itself worked to reinforce – and occasionally disrupt – perceptions of Aboriginal-settler frontier violence and white supremacy. It also explores moments of settler discomfort and unsettlement in these serial texts that operate as counterpoints to the larger imperatives of this periodical fiction to support and reinforce the colonial project. By aligning the disruptive potential of these serial narratives and their representations of Aboriginal and settler mobilities, I argue we can uncover moments when these texts appear to resist the rhetoric of forward momentum and advancement traditionally associated with narratives of colonial modernity.' (Publication abstract)

Speculative Bibliography Ryan Cordell , 2020 single work criticism
— Appears in: Anglia : Zeitschrift Fur Englische Philologie , September vol. 138 no. 3 2020; (p. 519-531)

'This article proposes speculative bibliography as an experimental approach to the digitised archive, in which textual associations are constituted propositionally, iteratively, and (sometimes) temporarily, as the result of probabilistic computational models. Speculative bibliography is offered as a complement to digital scholarly editing, and as a direct response to the challenges of scale and labour that will make comprehensive editing of digital archives impossible. Rather than acting on specific, individual texts, a speculative bibliography enacts a scholarly theory of the text through a computational model, reorganising the archive to evidence a particular idea of textual relation or interaction. Such models, in which textual relationships are determined by formal, internal textual structures, constitute bibliographic arguments that can be verified, amended, extended, or contested on either humanistic or computational grounds.' (Publication abstract)

Last amended 5 Jun 2019 11:13:43
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