Hypertext and History

Prof. AlvaradoMDST 3703

1 October 2013

Business

• Quizzes due before class on Thursday

Review: Text

• We began by looking at texts as isolated units – stories, folktales, myths, dramas, etc.

• We showed how texts have been modeled digitally, e.g. by OHCO, XML, TEI, HTML

• We also saw that the individual text is not simple– It has levels: Structure, Content, and Style– It has overlapping structures

Review: Hypertext

• Last week, we saw that when viewed from the perspective of the library, this model breaks down

• Texts appear more as intersections in a network of lexia rather than as stand-alone objects

• The idea of hypertext decomposes the unitary text as a temporary formation within a universe of possibilities (the Library)

This week, we move from modeling the text to the text as model

Text as a model of history

How are history and text related?

Historians tells stories

Stories, according to Aristotle, describe action

What kind of action?

[The Action of Heroes]

So, histories tells stories about people

They are also written from different perspectives and motivations

What are some kinds of perspectives?

[Great man theory]

The Great Man theory of history

Historical Materialism

Christian Eschatology

It’s Complicated

http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/2010/apr/29/mcchrystal-afghanistan-powerpoint-slide#zoomed-picture

Are these kinds of history told in the same way?

Is there a connection between medium and message?

Let’s take art as an example

[Napoleon]

Picasso’s Guernica (1937)

[Guernica]

Ayer’s book, The Promise of the New South, tries to create this kind of experience in textual form

How does the book do it?

Open vs. Fixed Narrative

• Fixed narrative– Traditional, linear story showing cause-and-effect

or logical sequence– Makes an argument

• Open narrative– Many narratives– Questions of cause-and-effect left open, argument

left to the reader to surmise

[Quote]

To move away from this

What from this course does this opposition remind you of?

The problem of overlap

Competing narratives are like overlapping structures

OHCO : Fixed Narrative::

Structure : Content

What media form does Ayers develop after Promise?

Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,         I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.

(from Psalm 23)

The Valley of the Shadowmoves beyond Promise

toward open narrative model

The database as radical hypertext

Back story: IATH

• Institute for Advanced Technology in the Humanitieshttp://www.iath.virginia.edu

• Established in 1992 • Funded by IBM• VOS one of two founding projects • A demonstration project for IBM; pitched as "as a

research library in a box, enabling students at places without a large archive to do the same kind of research as a professional historian."

The Library/Archive Metaphor

What does the site contain?

What’s in the Archive

• Content– Thousands of primary sources– Newpapers, letters, diaries, maps, images, gov docs

• Coverage– Space: Augusta Co, VA and Franklin Co, PA– Time: 1859 to 1870

• “Value-added” Interfaces– Search and browse– Timelines– Animations

• http://valley.lib.virginia.edu/VoS/MAPDEMO/Theater/TheTheater.html

– Resources for using the site

How hypertextual is the site?

How is “associative indexing” handled?

(Associative indexing described by Bush as function of Memex)

Site Structure

• Organized hierarchically• Terminal nodes (lexia) not connected laterally• No cross-site searching• Minimal narrative

Does the site fulfill the goals of open narrative?

No, Ayers put too much faith in the database to produce the

desired effects

The Differences Slavery Made

An experimental form of historical publication created in response to criticisms of VOTS

“an applied experiment in digital scholarship”

What is the specific problem that TDSM tries to solve?

What was the experiment about?

To give full access to the scholarly argument

and its evidence

And to relate the two

How were these problems addressed by

Differences?

Technology

• XML is used to organize content– The is is made from one big XML file, 24,000 lines long– XML used to markup sources and argument

• XSL is used to transform content– We are not learning XSL, but it is similar to CSS but

more powerful• GIS is used for map data– Geographic Information Systems– Allows maps to display statistical data

Devices used by TDSM

• Narrative overlay (the Argument)• References provided links to lexia

(Historiography and Evidence)• Conventions for making citations• Content divided into broad groups, reflecting

the craft of history

Major Categories of Site Content

• Narrative– Summary of argument– Points of analysis

• Historiography– Secondary sources– Annotated bibliographic references

• Evidence– Primary sources– Documents– Tables (data)– Maps (This exposes a model of how history is done)

Site Structure

• Hierarchy with links– Menu A: Introduction, Summary, Points, Methods– Menu B: Evidence, Historiography, Tools– Each menu item has sub-menus

• How does Differences connect to Valley?

Darnton’s Pyramid

Concise account

Expanded versions of

aspects

Documentation with interpretive essays

Theoretical and historiographical material

Pedagogic material

Core TDSM “Prismatic” StructureHistoriography

Points of Analysis

Evidence

Summary of Argument

VOS

How hypertextual is the site?

How is “associative indexing” handled?

Categories used to organize content

• Geography• Politics

– Election of 1860– Political activtivists

• Economics– Commerce– Crops– Labor– Property

• Social structure• Race• Culture

– Religion– Education (“school”)– Urbanization (“Town Development”)

• Information and communications

Categories used to organize content

• Geography• Politics

– Election of 1860– Political activtivists

• Economics– Commerce– Crops– Labor– Property

• Social structure• Race• Culture

– Religion– Education (“school”)– Urbanization (“Town Development”)

• Information and communications

Missed opportunity?

Criticisms

• Nothing inherently hypertextual about the site• Thesis is not that complicated– Modernity and slavery not opposites

• Why not put exhibits inline?• Why not show points of comparison in context?– Need for transclusion

• Why explain relationship in historiography? Why not create links or use tags?

Criticism

• Worst of both worlds– Neither random access nor rich narrative– Exploits neither the potentials of a real library or a

digital library• Document-centric– Subject matter remains buried in the documents

• It’s strength is in the integrity of the materials• But criticized for being difficult to use• Is it scholarship?

Themes

• The site exposes the process of history as a form of storytelling

• We move from narrative to database to hyper-narrative

• How would you improve the site?