Book Description

The authors of this book ask how digital research tools are changing the ways in which practicing editors historicize Shakespeare's language. Scholars now encounter, interpret, and disseminate Shakespeare's language through an increasing variety of digital resources, including online editions such as theInternet Shakespeare Editions (ISE), searchable lexical corpora such as theEarly English Books Online-Text Creation Partnership (EEBO-TCP)or theLexicons of Early Modern English (LEME)collections, high-quality digital facsimiles such as the Folger Shakespeare Library's Digital Image Collection, text visualization tools such asVoyant, apps for reading and editing on mobile devices, and more.

What new insights do these tools offer about the ways Shakespeare's words made meaning in their own time? What kinds of historical or historicizing arguments can digital editions make about Shakespeare's language? A growing body of work in the digital humanities allows textual critics to explore new approaches to editing in digital environments, and enables language historians to ask and answer new questions about Shakespeare's words. The authors in this unique book explicitly bring together the two fields of textual criticism and language history in an exploration of the ways in which new tools are expanding our understanding of Early Modern English.

About the Author

Janelle Jenstadis Associate Professor in the Department of English, University of Victoria, Canada.

Mark Kaethleris an English Instructor at Medicine Hat College, Canada.

Jennifer Roberts-Smithis Assistant Professor and Associate Chair, Theatre and Performance in the Department of Drama and Speech Communication, University of Waterloo, Canada.