Digital Humanities and The Transformation of Literary Studies

Abstract

The emergence of digital humanities has profoundly transformed literary studies, introducing computational methods that challenge established methodologies and open new avenues of inquiry. This article traces the evolution of digital humanities from its origins in humanities computing to its current position as a dynamic and contested scholarly field. It analyzes key methodological innovations including Franco Moretti’s distant reading, Matthew Jockers’s macroanalysis, and Stephen Ramsay’s algorithmic criticism, evaluating the theoretical debates these approaches have generated about the nature of literary meaning and the appropriate methods for its study. The analysis further examines the impact of digital archiving on cultural heritage, the challenges of the digital divide and methodological bias, and the implications of artificial intelligence for the future of literary criticism. The article argues that digital humanities represents a powerful complement to traditional scholarship that expands the range of questions literary scholars can productively address.