ACHWeb - MLA Sessions

The ACH Guide to Humanities-Computing Talks at the 1996 MLA Convention

The Association for Computers and the Humanities has compiled this list of sessions with computing-related talks at the 1996 Modern Language Association Convention (in Washington, DC, from December 27 through 30). Some of these sessions contain only one or two computing-related talks, but this list includes the entire program for each session.

Although the 1996 convention is now in the past, this guide will remain available, as a record of what went on. Similar information for many other years is available via the main page on ACH MLA sessions.

Corrections and additions are welcome; please send them to John.Lavagnino@kcl.ac.uk.

20: Comparative Technologies: The Telegraph and the Internet

Friday, 27 December 1996, 7:00 to 8:15 p.m.; Lanai Suite 152, Sheraton Washington Hotel

A special session; session leader: Heather J. Hicks, Villanova University

• "The Telegraph in Black and White," Paul Gilmore, University of Chicago
• "Public Bodies, Public Spaces: The Female Telegraph Operator," Katherine Stubbs, Colby College
• "Invisible Signatures: Epistolarity, Anonymity, and Questions of Identity from the Telegraph to the Internet," Catherine C. Taylor, Duke University

65: Women, Cyborgs, Cyberspace, and Narrative

Saturday, 28 December 1996, 8:30 to 9:45 a.m.; Atrium 2, Sheraton Washington Hotel

Program arranged by the Division on Women's Studies in Language and Literature. Presiding: Sidonie Smith, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor

• "The Cyborg Fatale: Promise in the Monstrous Feminine," Cimberli Kearns, Indiana University, Bloomington
• " `Trapped in the Body': Performativity and Virtual Embodiment," Tom Foster, Indiana University, Bloomington
• "Hypertext and the Refiguring of Female Subjectivity: A Reading of Shelley Jackson's Patchwork Girl," Barbara Page, Vassar College

68: L'Encyclopédie of Diderot and Alembert: New Approaches

Saturday, 28 December 1996, 8:30 to 9:45 a.m.; Map Room, Washington Hilton Hotel

Program arranged by the Division on Eighteenth-Century French Literature. Presiding: Julie Candler Hayes, University of Richmond

• "The Encyclopédie Electronique at ARTFL," Robert Morrissey, University of Chicago
• "La Promenade du Cyclope; or, Diderot's Whole Wisdom Web: A Deleuzian Reading of the Encyclopedic Planes of Transcendence," Fabienne-Sophie Chauderlot, University of California, Riverside
• "Encyclopedic Paris and the Embodied Public Sphere," Elizabeth J. MacArthur, University of California, Santa Barbara

87: Text Encoding and Textual Theory

Saturday, 28 December 1996, 8:30 to 9:45 a.m.; Warren Room, Sheraton Washington Hotel

A special session; session leader: C. M. Sperberg-McQueen, University of Illinois, Chicago

• "Tagging for Specific Purposes," Ian Lancashire, University of Toronto, Saint George Campus
• "Constructing Knowledge through Text Encoding: Implications for Literary Theory," Richard Giordano, University of Manchester
• "Some Formal Assumptions of the Standard Generalized Markup Language Markup and of the Text Encoding Initiative Guidelines," C. M. Sperberg-McQueen

Note: One talk originally scheduled for this session, "SGML Markup in a Grammatica Speculativa System," by Annegret Fiebig, Universität Tübingen, was cancelled.

106: Technology and Philology: Roundtable

Saturday, 28 December 1996, 10:15 to 11:30 a.m.; Map Room, Washington Hilton

Program arranged by the Division on French Medieval Language and Literature. Presiding: William D. Paden, Northwestern University

Speakers: Stephen G. Nichols, Johns Hopkins University; Bernard Cerquiglini, Université de Paris 7; Jesse Hurlbut, Brigham Young University, Utah; Joan Grenier-Winther, Washington State University, Pullman

125: Material Text Matters: The Medium as the Message

Saturday, 28 December 1996, 10:15 to 11:30 a.m.; Woodley Room, Sheraton Washington Hotel

A special session; session leader: Philip Cohen, University of Texas, Arlington

• "The Dream of the Book and the Chaos of Texts, 1642-60," Matthew Prineas, Idaho State University
• "Valuable by Design: Material Features of Nineteenth-Century Sonnet Anthologies," Natalie M. Houston, Duke University
• "Dickinson's Paper Birds: A Detail Glimpsed out of a Window Screen," Marta L. Werner, Georgia State University
• "Machines and Gardens: Cerebrating in Cyberspace," Phillip Doss, Goodlettsville, Tennessee

Respondent: Philip Cohen

181: Poetry and Computers I: Digital Poetics

Saturday, 28 December, noon to 1:15 p.m., Wisconsin Room, Sheraton Washington Hotel

Program arranged by the Association for Computers and the Humanities. Presiding: John Lavagnino, Brown University

• "Voicing Digital Poetics: Performative, Pathetic, and Radical Ephemerality," Jeffrey Powers-Beck, East Tennessee State University
• "Joined at the Word: The Chadwyck-Healey English Poetry Full-Text Database," Mary Blockley, University of Texas, Austin
• "The Poetics of Artificial Intelligence," Matthew G. Kirschenbaum, University of Virginia

Note: A talk originally scheduled as part of this panel--"Jumping to Occlusions: the Poetics of Electronic Space," by Loss Pequeño Glazier of the State University of New York, Buffalo--was moved to the second ACH panel, on Monday, 30 December 1996, at noon.

198: The Hypertext Revolution: Promise and Reality

Saturday, 28 December 1996, 1:45 to 3:00 p.m.; Colorado Room, Sheraton Washington Hotel

A special session; session leader: Paul D. Miers, Towson State University

• "Tangled Web: Hypertext and Its Histories," Stuart Moulthrop, University of Baltimore
• "Poetics and the User Interface: Rethinking the Substance of Hypertext," Terry Harpold, Georgia Institute of Technology
• "Text, Hypertext, and Neural Nets: What Figure Does the Psyche Make?" Paul D. Miers

Hypertext materials are available on the web.

235: The Place of Bibliography and Textual Studies in the Undergraduate and Graduate English Studies Curricula

Saturday, 28 December 1996, 3:30 to 4:45 p.m.; Lanai Suite 152, Sheraton Washington Hotel

Program arranged by the Discussion Group on Bibliography and Textual Studies. Presiding: Philip Cohen, University of Texas, Arlington

• "From Orality to the Electronic Book: Teaching the Sociology of Texts," Bryan Coleborne, Monash University
• "Textual Studies and the English Major," Claire C. Pettengill, University of Maryland, College Park
• "Multiple Versions and the Teaching of Literature," Jack Stillinger, University of Illinois, Urbana
• "Textual Studies and the Freshman Composition Classroom," Julie Bates Dock, Torrance, California

247: Focusing on Editorial Scholarship at Century's End

Saturday, 28 December 1996, 3:30 to 4:45 p.m.; Marshall Room, Sheraton Washington Hotel

Program arranged by the MLA Committee on Scholarly Editions. Presiding: Roberta Frank, University of Toronto, Saint George Campus

• "A Hypertext Hemingway," Charles Ross, University of Hartford
• "Editorial Scholarship, Literary Translation, and the Construction of a Written Text," Carol Maier, Kent State University, Kent
• "The Text of Caedmon's Hymns," Daniel P. O'Donnell, Yale University

280: Configuring Theory and Criticism

Saturday, 28 December 1996, 7:15 to 8:30 p.m.; Cabinet Room, Washington Hilton Hotel

Program arranged by the Division on Literary Criticism. Presiding: Vincent B. Leitch, Purdue University, West Lafayette

• "Textualities, Ideologies: Manuscript to Hypertext," Martin J. Irvine, Georgetown University
• "Pedagogy of Theory and Disciplinary Models," Vincent B. Leitch, Purdue University, West Lafayette
• "Exemplarity and Idiosyncrasy," Barbara E. Johnson, Harvard University
• "Complicity and the Anthology," Jeffrey Williams, East Carolina University

293: Teaching Judith Shakesepare: Shakespeare and Early Modern Women Writers in the Classroom

Saturday, 28 December 1996, 7:15 to 8:30 p.m.; Holmes Room, Sheraton Washington Hotel

A special session; session leaders: Elizabeth H. Hageman, University of New Hampshire, Durham; Sara Jayne Steen, Montana State University, Bozeman

• " `Altera Dido': Hospitality and the Household in Shakespeare and Isabella Whitney," Patricia Phillippy, Texas A&M University, College Station
• "Teaching Race in the Renaissance Classroom: Othello and Oroonoko," Joyce Green MacDonald, University of Kentucky
• "Judith and Her `Fellow' Writers in the Classroom: Are They Peers or Is She Peerless?," Irene Burgess, Wheeling Jesuit College
• " `Unbridled Speech is Mariam's Worst Disgrace': Early Modern Women Writers, Shakespeare, and the Internet," Mary Bly, Washington University; Elizabeth Patton, Washington University

319: Technology and Modern Literature

Sunday, 29 December 1996, 8:30 to 9:45 a.m.; Delaware A, Sheraton Washington Hotel

Program arranged by the Division on Twentieth-Century English Literature. Presiding: Michael Groden, University of Western Ontario

• "Language as Information," Johanna Drucker, Yale University
• "Hypertext, Computer Graphics, and the Myth of Transparency," Jay David Bolter, Georgia Institute of Technology
• "Joyce's Ulysses in Hypermedia: A Demonstration," Michael Groden, University of Western Ontario

Note: A talk by George P. Landow originally scheduled as part of this panel, "The Empire Writes Back Digitally: Using Hypertext to Reconfigure Canon and Curriculum," has been cancelled.

337: Internet 102: Intermediate Resources for Research and Teaching

Sunday, 29 December 1996, 8:30 to 9:45 a.m.; Cotillion North, Sheraton Washington Hotel

Program arranged by the MLA Committee on Computers and Emerging Technologies in Teaching and Research. Presiding: Gina L. Greco, Portland State University

Speakers: Joel D. Goldfield, Fairfield University; Gina L. Greco

364: Computers and Style

Sunday, 29 December 1996, 10:15 to 11:30 a.m.; Calvert Room, Sheraton Washington Hotel

Program arranged by the Discussion Group on Computer Studies in Language and Literature. Presiding: Joseph Rudman, Carnegie Mellon University

• "Mutations of the Narrative Voice: Gary/Ajar," Vina Tirvengadum, University of Manitoba

  Many experts from Buffon to Barthes postulate that a writer's style is dictated by the subconscious and forms the genetic fingerprint of the writer's work. It would therefore follow that pseudonymous works should contain the genetic fingerprint of the original writer and that there should be no significant difference between the style of Romain Gary and that of Emile Ajar. However, the two applications of author recognition, namely (1) authorship attribution and (2) chronological studies have made contradictory claims, the former stating that the unconscious aspect of a writer's style remains constant throughout his/her life, the latter claiming that the unconscious features change throughout the author's life and develop rectilinearly which then allow a work to be dated.

• "A Computerized Analysis of Shakespeare's Verse by a Connectionist Model of Poetic Meter," Malcolm Hayward, Indiana University of Pennsylvania

  This paper describes the analysis of a large sample (1500 lines) of Shakespeare's verse by a computerized, connectionist model of poetic meter. Three related issues regarding Shakespeare's meter are explored: chronological development (early, middle, and late styles), stylistic distinctions within genres (comedies, histories, and tragedies), and attribution issues (concerning disputed works in the Shakespeare canon).

• "Language and Style in Golding's The Inheritors: An Eclectic, Computer-Assisted Approach," David L. Hoover, New York University

  In "Linguistic Function and Literary Style: An Inquiry into the Language of William Golding's The Inheritors," M. A. K. Halliday analyzes the style of Golding's second novel. He claims that the selection of clause-types, the use of body parts and inanimate objects as agents, and the restricted diction create a kind of Neanderthal worldview that dominates most of the novel.

  Stanley Fish attacked this article in his challenging but often misguided "What is Stylistics and Why are they Saying Such Terrible Things about it?" I found Halliday's approach attractive but his conclusions doubtful and Fish's critique unconvincing, and decided to examine Halliday's claims more closely. I concluded that the approach was effective and fruitful, but the results were flawed because of insufficient analysis, and decided to rectify this problem by performing a fuller, computer-assisted analysis of the novel.

382: :) When You Say That: Debating Usage Standards for Electronic Communication

Sunday, 29 December 1996, 10:15 to 11:30 a.m.; Woodley Room, Sheraton Washington Hotel

Program arranged by the American Dialect Society. Presiding: Dennis Baron, University of Illinois, Urbana

• "Women and Web Talk: Making Ourselves Heard," Gail Hawisher, University of Illinois, Urbana
• "The Language Police on the World Wide Web," Dennis Baron
• "Discourse Communities on the World Wide Web: Innovation in Communication Styles," John Staczek, Georgetown University

418: Electronic Technology and Renaissance Materials

Sunday, 29 December 1996, noon to 1:15 p.m.; Delaware A, Sheraton Washington Hotel

Program arranged by the Renaissance English Text Society. Presiding: G. W. Pigman III, California Institute of Technology

• "Editing All the Manuscripts of All The Canterbury Tales into Electronic Form: Why Bother?" Elizabeth Solopova, University of Oxford
• "The Application of Digital Image Processing to the Analysis of Watermarked Paper and Printers' Ornament Usage in Early Printed Books," David L. Gants, University of Georgia
• "Electronic Editions and the Needs of Readers," John Lavagnino, Brown University

431A: Back from the Future: Dictionaries in the Aftermath of Technology

Sunday, 29 December 1996, noon to 1:15 p.m.; Truman Room, Sheraton Washington Hotel

Program arranged by the Discussion Group on Lexicography. Presiding: William A. Kretschmar, Jr., University of Georgia

Speakers: Patrick Hanks, Oxford University Press; David Barnhart, Lexik House Publishers; Victoria Neufeldt, Merriam-Webster, Inc.; Michael Agnes, Webster's New World Dictionaries

450: The Canon and the Web: Reconfiguring Romanticism in the Information Age

Sunday, 29 December 1996, 1:45 to 3:00 p.m.; Atrium 2, Sheraton Washington Hotel

A special session; session leaders: Alan Liu, University of California, Santa Barbara; Laura Mandell, Miami University, Oxford

• "The Romantic Chronology," Laura Mandell
• "The Blake Archive Project," Joseph Viscomi, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
• "La Belle Assemblée: The Bluestocking Archive," Elizabeth Fay, University of Massachusetts, Harbor Campus
• "The Frankenstein Project," Jack Lynch, University of Pennsylvania

Respondents: Michael Gamer, University of Pennsylvania; Morri Safran, University of Texas, Austin; Steven Jones, Loyola University, Chicago

Panel information is available on the web.

465: Technical Communication in Cyberspace

Sunday, 29 December 1996, 1:45 to 3:00 p.m.; Marshall Room, Sheraton Washington Hotel

Program arranged by the Association of Teachers of Technical Writing. Presiding: TyAnna Herrington, Texas Technological University

• "Retheorizing Enframing Dichotomies: An Interrogation of the Reproduction of Binary Thinking in Print Representations of the Internet," Karla Kitalong, Michigan Technological University
• "Cyberspace and Texts: The Emergence of Shared Dynamic Database and Information Delivery Systems," Daniel J. Murphy, State University of New York, Utica; David Coker, State University of New York, Utica; Steven Schneider, State University of New York, Utica
• "Principles of Web Design," Lance Cohen, Saint John's University, Jamaica

486: Anthologizing Romantic-Era Writing: Shaping the Canon for the Commercial Marketplace

Sunday, 29 December 1996, 3:30 to 4:45 p.m.; Atrium 2, Sheraton Washington Hotel

A special session; session leader: Susan J. Wolfson, Princeton University

Speakers: Jack Stillinger, University of Illinois, Urbana; Jerome J. McGann, University of Virginia; Peter J. Manning, University of Southern California; Duncan Wu, University of Glasgow; Anne K. Mellor, University of California, Los Angeles; Richard Matlak, College of the Holy Cross

489: Gender and the Politics of Editing

Sunday, 29 December 1996, 3:30 to 4:45 p.m.; Marshall Room, Sheraton Washington Hotel

A special session; session leader: Julia Flanders, Brown University

• " `Chaste Virgins and Scarlet Whores': Gender and the Editing of Medieval Manuscripts," Sarah McNamer, Harvard University
• "The Book and the Screen of Susan and Emily Dickinson," Martha Nell Smith, University of Maryland, College Park
• " `Neatness of Finish': Marianne Moore's Texts, Gender, and Editing," Robin Schulze, Penn State University, University Park

503: Editing for the Internet

Sunday, 29 December 1996, 3:30 to 4:45 p.m.; Lanai Suite 148, Sheraton Washington Hotel

Program arranged by the Association for Documentary Editing. Presiding: Charles Faulhaber, University of California, Berkeley

• "Scholarship versus Technology: Principles for Electronic Historical Editions," David R. Chesnutt, University of South Carolina, Columbia
• "Making Technology Work for Scholarly Editions," C. M. Sperberg-McQueen, University of Illinois, Chicago
• "Scholarly Editions and the Internet," Susan Hockey, Rutgers University, New Brunswick

509: Technology and the Role of the Internet

Sunday, 29 December 1996, 3:30 to 4:45 p.m.; Calvert Room, Sheraton Washington Hotel

Program arranged by the Association for Business Communications. Presiding: Tim Weiss, University of Maine, Orono

• "Questions for the Classroom as Advertisers Conquer Cyberspace," Nancy Van Arsdale, East Stroudsburg University
• "Creating a Learning Ethos through Collaboration, Writing, and the Internet," James Dubinsky, Miami University, Oxford; B. Kay Snavely, Miami University, Oxford
• "Women and the Web, 1996," Kitty Locker, Ohio State University, Columbus

522: Cash Bar Arranged by the Brown University Women Writers Project

Sunday, 29 December 1996, 5:15 to 6:30 p.m.; Atrium 2, Sheraton Washington Hotel

529: Reception Arranged in Honor of the Educom Medal Recipients, Arranged by the Committee on Computers and Emerging Technologies in Teaching and Research

Sunday, 29 December 1996, 5:15 to 6:30 p.m.; Warren Room, Sheraton Washington Hotel

The Committee on Computers and Emerging Technologies in Teaching and Research will host a reception to honor the two 1996 Educom Medal recipients in modern languages: James Noblitt (University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill) and Cynthia Selfe (Michigan Technological University).

567: Electronic Publishing and Scholarly Integrity

Sunday, 29 December 1996, 7:15 to 8:30 p.m.; Idaho Room, Sheraton Washington Hotel

Program arranged by the Advisory Committee on the MLA International Bibliography. Presiding: Jennifer Crewe, Columbia University Press

• "Welcoming a Future: Answering Questions about Electronic Publishing," Christopher Funkhouser, State University of New York, Albany
• "Librarians at the Gate: Order and Integrity on the Electronic Frontier," Susanna Pathak, Virginia Commonwealth University
• "Electronic Publishing and Doctoral Dissertations in the Humanities," Matthew G. Kirschenbaum, University of Virginia
• "Beyond the MLA Handbook and The Chicago Manual: Documentation and Production for the Electronic Age," Todd Taylor, University of South Florida

570: Virtual Worlds with Real People

Sunday, 29 December 1996, 7:15 to 8:30 p.m.; Delaware A, Sheraton Washington Hotel

Program arranged by the MLA Committee on Computers and Emerging Technologies in Teaching and Research. Presiding: David Dollenmayer, Worcester Polytechnic Institute

• "<TITLE>Web.Weaving/Students/Building/Knowledge/Sites/</TITLE>," H. Lewis Ulman, Ohio State University, Columbus; David Hogsette, Ohio State University, Columbus
• "Virtual Worlds, Real Students, and the Roles of the Teacher," Gilberte Furstenberg, Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Douglas Morgenstern, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

581: Voix féminines dans la littérature francophone

Sunday, 29 December 1996, 7:15 to 8:30 p.m.; Military Room, Washington Hilton Hotel

Program arranged by Phi Sigma Iota (International Foreign Language Honor Society). Presiding: Marie-France Hilgar, University of Nevada, Las Vegas

• "Voix féminines chez Antonine Maillet," Jean-Luc Desalvo, California State University, San Jose
• "Les lettres de Madame de Maintenon," Marie-France Hilgar
• "Motherhood, Mythmaking, and Marginality in Three Novels by Michel Tremblay," Ruth B. Antosh, State University of New York, Fredonia
• "Teaching WWW: Francophone Women's Writing and the Web," Virginia Fichera, State University of New York, Oswego

614: Language and Technology

Monday, 30 December 1996, 8:30 a.m. to 9:45 a.m.; Kansas Room, Sheraton Washington Hotel

Program arranged by the Division on Language and Society. Presiding: Bruce Southard, East Carolina University

• "Teaching the Dominant Language: The Cultural Implications of the English Telecourse," Randy Accetta, University of Arizona
• "Language Choice during a `Transatlantic Classroom' E-Mail Project: Germany versus the United States," Claudia A. Becker, University of Illinois, Chicago
• "Shamans of the Machine: Constructions of Technology in Nineteenth- and Early-Twentieth-Century American Advertising," Jack Bushnell, University of Wisconsin, Eau Claire
• "The Role of Language in Creating a Hierarchical Social Context in Graduate-Level Computer-Mediated Classrooms," Amy Hanson, Texas Tech University

673: Literary Studies and the Global Information Infrastructure

Monday, 30 December 1996, 10:15 to 11:30 a.m.; Cotillion North, Sheraton Washington Hotel

Program arranged by the MLA Committee on Computers and Emerging Technologies in Teaching and Research. Presiding: Frank Dominguez, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

• "The Grammatology of Computing: Orality, Literacy, Electracy," Gregory Ulmer, University of Florida
• " `Where Did You Say You Were?': Virtual Universities and the Death of Distance," Paul Delany, Simon Fraser University
• "The Impact of Global Hypertext on Literacy and Cultural Theory," Jay David Bolter, Georgia Institute of Technology
• "Chaos and Capital: Art in the Information Economy," Sandra Braman, University of Illinois, Urbana

Session materials are available on the World Wide Web.

683: The State of the Edition

Monday, 30 December 1996, noon to 1:15 p.m.; Map Room, Washington Hilton Hotel

Program arranged by the Division on Sixteenth- and Seventeenth-Century Spanish Drama. Presiding: Charles Ganelin, Purdue University, West Lafayette

• "The Complete Comedia," A. Robert Lauer, University of Oklahoma
• "Common Ground: The Comedia and the World Wide Web," James T. Abraham, University of Arizona

685: Teaching Electronic Research Methods

Monday, 30 December 1996, noon to 1:15 p.m.; Maryland A, Sheraton Washington Hotel

Program arranged by the Division on Methods of Literary Research. Presiding: Peter L. Shillingsburg, Mississippi State University

• "A Study in Oxymoron: or, A Course in Computer-Assisted Literary Analysis," Edward A. Heinemann, University of Toronto, Saint George Campus
• "Team Teaching Computerized Editing of Texts from the Middle Ages to the Present," Ernest Sullivan, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
• "Electronic Research Crutches," Peter L. Shillingsburg

704: Poetry and Computers II: Hypertext and Poetry

Monday, 30 December, noon to 1:15 p.m., Wisconsin Room, Sheraton Washington Hotel

Program arranged by the Association for Computers and the Humanities. Presiding: Michael Neuman, Georgetown University

• "Jumping to Occlusions: the Poetics of Electronic Space," Loss Pequeño Glazier, State University of New York, Buffalo
• "Elizabeth Bishop in Hypertext," Barbara Page, Vassar College

Note: Two talks originally scheduled as part of this session were cancelled: "Restoring Voice, Containing the Labyrinth: A Computer Tutorial for Poetry," by James Dougherty of the University of Notre Dame, and "Hypertext and Poetry," by George P. Landow of Brown University.

Other events and activities

The Center for Electronic Texts in the Humanities (Rutgers University and Princeton University) will have a booth in the exhibition hall: Booth 608, in Exhibit Halls A and B, Sheraton Washington Hotel. The exhibit halls will be open on 28 and 29 December 1996 from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., and on 30 December 1996 from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Other Web resources relating to the 1996 MLA Convention

• Poetry readings and sessions, courtesy of the Electronic Poetry Center at the State University of New York, Buffalo