Staff Members of the School of Philology Discuss ‘Distant Reading’ by Franco Moretti

On May 17^th, 2016, a presentation and discussion of the Russian translation of the book ‘Distant Reading’ by Franco Moretti was held at RANEPA media loft.

The event began with a welcoming speech by the translators Alexey Vdovin (HSE), Artem Shelya (University of Tartu) and Oleg Sobchuk (University of Tartu), who presented the methods of Franco Moretti and the main areas of his research. The translators spoke about the concept of distant reading, its boundaries and possibilities as well as the transfer of the methodology to the Russian scientific context.  

Galin Tihanov, Professor at the Queen Mary University of London, Boris Orekhov, computer linguist, Associate Professor at HSE School of Linguistics and Andrey Volodin, specialist in historical informatics, touched upon other methodological questions presented in the book - an evolutionary approach to changes in literature, world-systems analysis that allows us to trace the twists and turns of the export and circulation of formal innovations in the world, and the ambitions and hybrid methodology of the scholar that make various specialists discuss his books.

An open discussion followed the presentation. Participants discussed some of the topical methodological issues that Morretti’s books raise regarding modern literary criticism.