Computers in the Humanities: Methods and Applications in the Study of English Literature

Abstract

This paper reviews the relatively disappointing achievements of computer-aided approaches in the field of English literary studies, and postulates explanations for this It considers the theoretical objections that have been raised, specifically in the areas of stylistics, and the ways those objections may be met It locates computer-aided approaches in the larger topography of late twentieth-century theory and methodology, and identifies a newly envigorated role through the development of large literary databases.