From Close Reading to Distant Reading: A Digital Humanities Crash Course

Date: 3 November 2025 (Monday)

Time: 13:10-16:00

Venue: College of Liberal Arts 7006

Speaker: Prof. Jenny Kwok (Hong Kong Baptist University)

Abstract:

This guest lecture introduces students to the ways computational tools are transforming the study of literature. Moving from the traditional practice of close reading (attending to individual words, images, and stylistic features) to the methods of distant reading, it explores how digital approaches can reveal large-scale literary patterns across time, genre, and culture. At the same time, the lecture reflects on the (pseudo-)dichotomy between close and distant reading, arguing that the latter should be understood not as a replacement, but as an expansion of literary interpretation. In an age when texts are produced at unprecedented speed and in increasingly multimodal forms, distant reading offers a means to engage critically with the digital world while extending the possibilities of humanistic inquiry.

Students will be guided through simple, accessible tools such as Voyant Tools for text visualization and word-frequency analysis, and will see a short demo of Python-based text analytics (tokenization, sentiment, and keyword extraction). The session will also introduce how visual language models (VLMs) can analyze visual adaptations such as film stills or cover designs, highlighting the convergence of text and image analytics in contemporary Digital Humanities.

The goal is to help students understand not only the technical ‘how,’ but also the interpretive ‘why’: how digital reading complements human interpretation, and how data visualization can open new questions about literature, authorship, and style.