This thesis explores the transformative impact of digital mediums and computational textual analysis tools on the reading and interpretation of Jane Austen's works. Through a comprehensive...Show moreThis thesis explores the transformative impact of digital mediums and computational textual analysis tools on the reading and interpretation of Jane Austen's works. Through a comprehensive examination, the study contrasts traditional print reading with digital methods, emphasizing the shift in the literary landscape. Chapter 1 introduces the research questions and relevant theoretical framework, focusing on how digital tools influence the comprehension and appreciation of Austen's texts. Chapter 2 delves into the historical context, examining the reception and interpretation of Austen's novels by established critics through close reading methods. Chapter 3 presents a detailed case study, utilising digital textual analysis to uncover patterns and themes in Austen's writing. The conclusion synthesises these findings, highlighting the enhanced efficiency of textual analysis, and the unveiling of new aspects in Austen's texts. The research demonstrates the value of digital tools in providing empirical evidence and new insights, enriching the field of literary criticism. It also addresses the relevance and future potential of computational methods, proposing directions for further research and acknowledging the limitations of computational research in the literary field and the current study. This work underscores the significant role of digital innovation in reshaping the study and appreciation of classic literature.Show less
The philosophy of open access has an important role in the academic publishing world, as it wants to make access to scientific information less restricted to researchers. The reality of it is,...Show moreThe philosophy of open access has an important role in the academic publishing world, as it wants to make access to scientific information less restricted to researchers. The reality of it is, however, more complicated than it seems. The first step is to accept that we are not dealing with a single academic publishing field but with a number of different ones. Each field is highly influenced by the environments in which it emerged. This thesis wants to present two different approaches to the idea of open access to science, and how these approaches were influenced by their regional environments. The two regions analysed in this thesis are Latin America and the Global North. Even though open access has a global character, being part of an international establishment such as academic publishing, the two regions present a diverse development of the idea of open access. These were influenced by the different social, technological and historical environments that the two regions displayed when the ideas of open access were emerging. After presenting a general picture of how the publishing process works and the role of its agents, I analyse the reasons for the use of open access in the two regions and create two timelines portraying the main events, infrastructure, initiatives and regulations that took place and that shaped the two approaches in use today. These two approaches of open access developed at different tempos and they were driven by contrasting motivations. The relationship that the Global North and Latin America have as academic circuits is, however, responsible for the flow of interaction between the two connotations and implementations of open access. In this thesis, I argue that the uneven power dynamics between the two approaches of open access have been influenced by a historical relation between the two regions through a core-periphery perspective. This has created an asymmetrical flow of influences moving from one region to the other, and vice versa. After presenting how these convergences of interactions are experienced on a practical level by researchers and academics, I conclude by suggesting that the discussion should not be about an open access connotation prevailing over the other, but rather about initiating a dialogue and starting a conversation between the two approaches and accepting both perspectives as legitimate and valuable.Show less
Books are deeply intertwined with the societies that produce them. Besides the unmistakable benefits leisure reading can give to individuals, such as literacy, creativity, imagination, knowledge...Show moreBooks are deeply intertwined with the societies that produce them. Besides the unmistakable benefits leisure reading can give to individuals, such as literacy, creativity, imagination, knowledge and empathy, this free time activity has an impact on a higher level too. The written word enables connections between individuals and communities in ways that were unimaginable before the Print Revolution. Books can encompass the values of a nation, they can communicate and reinforce them. These aspects are especially important in the case of a small nation with a distinct language, as a strong need of cultural preservation is present. The main focus of this thesis is the two-way connection between a country’s reading culture and its social, political and economic realms. It is based on the argument that participants of the reading landscape not only affect the readers with their actions, but have an indirect impact on the wider cultural system through the reading landscape. The means to support this argument is an analysis of the literary landscape of Hungary, based on a self-constructed model, the Reading Promotion Impact Matrix. The two dimensions of this model are the nation’s core values that are supported and reflected by the reading promotion efforts; and the areas that can impact and can be impacted by these reading promotion activities. The thesis also highlights the interactivity and interconnectedness of the participants of a country’s literary landscape.Show less
In recent decades, our understanding of archives has evolved beyond the familiar, institutional archive carefully tended to by a small group of trained professionals. Movements such as...Show moreIn recent decades, our understanding of archives has evolved beyond the familiar, institutional archive carefully tended to by a small group of trained professionals. Movements such as postcolonialism and postcustodialism, combined with the digital turn, have allowed interest in other, less conventional forms of archiving to emerge. As such, the concept of an archival continuum (that is, the understanding of archives as evolving and participatory systems rather than fixed institutions) has been accepted by archival scholarship. This thesis investigates whether printed family memoirs that incorporate visual material from family archives can be placed along said archival continuum. Four such memoirs – The Hare with Amber Eyes (2010), In Memory of Memory (2018), Heimat: A German Family Album (2018), and Letters to Camondo (2021) – have been selected as case studies by which to examine their potential archival and evidentiary value. Each memoir is a work of postmemory – following Marianne Hirsch, the authors are processing generational trauma passed down as a result of the Holocaust. I argue that it is not only the narratives that lend them archival value, but also their inclusion of archival material. As I will show, understanding published memoirs as archives supports an expanded recognition of non-professional memory work as archival. Importantly, the increased accessibility of published memoirs to a general audience versus that of conventional archives allows for greater interaction with the preserved objects, and so aids in supporting the societal memorialization of the Holocaust. By focusing on the paper editions of the books, I am able to examine the unique benefits and challenges of the printed book as a form of accessible archive and memory object.Show less
Preprints are complete scholarly manuscripts that have not (yet) been through a formal peer review process and are made publicly available, often by uploading them to a preprint server, which can...Show morePreprints are complete scholarly manuscripts that have not (yet) been through a formal peer review process and are made publicly available, often by uploading them to a preprint server, which can be accessed without any limitations. During the COVID-19 pandemic, preprints gained popularity because they allow for rapid dissemination of research, which was vital at that point. Yet, this increased popularity of preprints does not appear to have lessened since the recent end of the pandemic and it is not expected that it will rapidly diminish either. Instead, it has even spread to fields that have arguably had little to do with COVID research. It would appear that the pandemic was the boost preprints needed to become more widely accepted across many academic fields. Now, many contemporary critics argue that preprints are becoming ‘a common part of the scholarly publishing process’ and are referring to preprints as an ‘important tool’ in scholarly publishing, a way to ‘complement’ the current system. This thesis analyses which functions of academic publishing are complemented by preprints and in what way they prove to be important tools within the existing system. In order to do so, the thesis commences with a comparative analysis of five separate theories regarding what the functions of (academic) publishing are and builds a new theoretical framework with which to analyse preprints and their role.Show less
In the course of the twentieth century, digital multimodal longform journalism has grown to become one of the most consequential genres of online writing. From being a peripheral genre in the 1990s...Show moreIn the course of the twentieth century, digital multimodal longform journalism has grown to become one of the most consequential genres of online writing. From being a peripheral genre in the 1990s, it is now an essential part of most news outlet’s digital platforms. The genre’s ascent, its connection with the digital advances of the last two decades, and its effect on readers has been closely followed and widely analyzed by media scholars. This thesis is especially concerned with the latter topic as it primarily explores what affordances of the digital multimodal longform genre contribute to immersion.Show less
This thesis explores how literature has represented AI and evaluates the effectiveness of computers in assisting us to answer this question. This representation is studied starting from the period...Show moreThis thesis explores how literature has represented AI and evaluates the effectiveness of computers in assisting us to answer this question. This representation is studied starting from the period just before it was born as a scientific discipline in 1956, and ending in 2015. It first sets out to examine both the optimistic and the fatalistic view of AI and traces the sources of the fear of AI, and then continues to use computational methods to research the portrayal of AI in fiction. To facilitate the analysis, 39 speculative fiction books were filtered and a file was created that contained sentences on AI in the books. This enabled a study of animacy, sentiments, emotions, and synonyms of ‘helpful and ‘doom’ across the corpus. During the study, the flaws of computational analysis are highlighted, especially its lack of interpretation skills and inability to fully understand context. Consequently, this provides difficulty in drawing definitive conclusions about AI’s representation specifically. Still, despite its limitations, the study is able to conclude that most AI-themed fiction conveys a positive message to the reader.Show less
This thesis establishes the Japanese otome visual novel genre of media as a new, digital type of immersive multimodal reading for women. Otome revives the bygone late 20th-century academic debate...Show moreThis thesis establishes the Japanese otome visual novel genre of media as a new, digital type of immersive multimodal reading for women. Otome revives the bygone late 20th-century academic debate on interactive fiction, as the subgenre challenges the categories of media as we understand them: the otome visual novel format combines romantically-themed prose with visual, audial, and interactive elements. Otome visual novels evoke a feeling of influence over the plot progression through interactivity, yet present walls of text as their method of story-building and therefore require a significant amount of reading, which could preclude their consideration as either literature or games per se. Because of this generic ambiguity, visual novels have long been overlooked in academia. This thesis presents a comprehensive analysis of otome visual novels as part of Japanese (women’s) reading habits using Espen Aarseth’s concept of ‘ergodic literature’, supported by theory from Reading Studies, Literature Studies, and Game Studies. In doing so, this thesis sheds light on the subgenre’s immense popularity in its country of origin and illuminates its unique position to bridge the academic fields of Literature Studies and Game Studies in the digital age.Show less
This thesis studies a Middle Dutch Book of Hours which was copied in 1498 and illuminated in 1499 for Aef van Bolgerien, an inhabitant of Beverwijk, and which is currently preserved in the Special...Show moreThis thesis studies a Middle Dutch Book of Hours which was copied in 1498 and illuminated in 1499 for Aef van Bolgerien, an inhabitant of Beverwijk, and which is currently preserved in the Special Collections of Leiden University Libraries under the shelfmark BPL 2747. While several aspects of this manuscript have already received scholarly attention (in particular its colophon and decoration), this thesis presents a first comprehensive study into the history and contents of the codex. It focuses in particular on the way(s) in which the book was customized for the use by Aef van Bolgerien. Books of Hours were often made to order, meaning their contents could be adjusted to the preferences of the comissioner. As a result, while Books of Hours are the most surviving type of texts from the Middle Ages, they show great variety among them. As the selection of additional prayers in particular is specific to each copy, they offer insight into both the relgious practice of the first owner and, in general, into the practice of customising Books of Hours. For this reason, the eleven additional prayers contained in BPL 2747 were chosen to be transcribed and edited as part of the thesis. In the first chapter, the historical developments surrounding the production and use of the Book of Hours are discussed, focussing on developments in lay religious culture, the Devotio Moderna, and the vernacular translation of the Hours that was created in this context. The second chapter introduces the manuscript central to the study, BPL 2747, and provides insight into elements such as the materiality, provenance and decorations of the book. The third chapter contains a transcription of the prayers separate from the Hours. The final chapter, chapter 4, adresses the dissemination of the prayers and what they may tell us about van Bolgerien’s devotional practice.Show less
This thesis is a complete edition of the MS. album amicorum of the publisher and printmaker Pieter Schenck I, in Leiden University Library Special Collections (LTK 903), together with a critical...Show moreThis thesis is a complete edition of the MS. album amicorum of the publisher and printmaker Pieter Schenck I, in Leiden University Library Special Collections (LTK 903), together with a critical introduction and apparatus.Show less
Newspapers are published fast and often, even in the eighteenth century. Setting type by hand is a rather extensive process. Do we see traces of this complicated process in newspapers? And who...Show moreNewspapers are published fast and often, even in the eighteenth century. Setting type by hand is a rather extensive process. Do we see traces of this complicated process in newspapers? And who decides on the layout and typographical features of newspapers? Did typesetters copy typesetting habits from each other? Is it possible to see right away where a newspaper has been printed or do they all look similar? To find out more about printing processes and newspapers layouts during the late eighteenth century five French newspapers from three different countries were analyzed: the Gazette de Leyde, the Gazette d’Amsterdam, the Gazette de Nice, the Courrier d’Avignon and the Gazette de Berne. First, the historical background for all three countries and all five newspapers was researched, which is presented in chapter two and the first half of chapter three, before the printing practices in the Netherlands are introduced in the second half of chapter three. By looking more extensively at the manual written by David Wardenaar, Beschrijving der boekdrukkunst [Description of book printing], the process of printing newspapers became clearer. In chapter four the analysis of the five newspapers can be found, which helped distinguish whether there were typographical features that could be found in all five newspapers and whether the newspapers followed certain ‘trends’ or habits of other newspapers which they adopted.Show less
This thesis set out to analyse the eighteenth-century library of Johanna Paauw. If looking at the books in someone's bookcase offers some insight into who they are, what might one conclude on the...Show moreThis thesis set out to analyse the eighteenth-century library of Johanna Paauw. If looking at the books in someone's bookcase offers some insight into who they are, what might one conclude on the basis of Johanna Paauw's bookshelves?Show less
This thesis presents an edition of a selection of letters written by Jurriaan Eindhoven and his soon to be wife Jacoba Holst. The letters in the collection date from 1934 to 1939 and are preserved...Show moreThis thesis presents an edition of a selection of letters written by Jurriaan Eindhoven and his soon to be wife Jacoba Holst. The letters in the collection date from 1934 to 1939 and are preserved by the Dutch National Dairy Archive. They started writing each other letters because Jurriaan joined the navy and went away for naval training in Vlissingen, while Jacoba lived in Amsterdam. After Jurriaan finished his training, he was sent to the Dutch-Indies. They stopped writing each other in 1939 because Jurriaan missed Jacoba too much and he returned to Amsterdam. This edition contains: an introduction to the collection, a description of the historical context of the letters, a description of the events that happened after they stopped writing, an insight in the personal lives of Jurriaan and Jacoba, a digital analysis of the letters and a transcription of a selection of the letters.Show less