Open Source Shakespeare

Open Source Shakespeare is a digital, web-based resource that could seemingly be utilized in unquantifiable ways—and yet it maintains some clear—and often explicitly disclosed—shortcomings. Developed by a graduate student from George Mason University, the OSS is not necessarily an especially “scholarly” resource, however, scholars may indeed find crucial utilitarian value in its capabilities. And yet, OSS is merely a website curating William Shakespeare’s complete works, which feature a number of sophisticated search engines that use a variety of linguistic algorithms to analyze the texts. And yet, that makes apparent another characteristic of this resource to scrutinize: the particular text of Shakespeare’s complete works utilized by this website is the Moby Shakespeare. As its developer, Eric M. Johnson, describes in a paper available from the OSS titled “Open Source Shakespeare: An Experiment of Literary Technology”: “The collection is an electronic reproduction of another set of texts which the Electronic Text Center at the University of Virginia identifies the source as the Globe Shakespeare, a mid-nineteenth-century popular edition of the Cambridge Shakespeare” (Johnson).

Whatever its limitations, OSS has many obvious uses. Although it uses a particular text—rather than daring to incorporate the many hundreds of existing critical editions of the preeminent and arcane Shakespearean quarto and folios—scholars, thespians, and casual readers may use OSS in a variety of ways. They can utilize the phonetic search engines, to find both existing uses of any exact search term, as well as any instances of etymologically-related words appearing anywhere in the Shakespearean canon. The OSS also allows users to search through stage directions, and the personae dramatis of each play. It has no apparent advertising feature on any of its web pages, no does it divulge any institutional sponsorship. Interestingly, Johnson produced the website as an active Marine stationed in Kuwait in 2001, and mentions in his paper that the OSS maintains an annual budget of $110 dollars, for “webhosting” (Johnson).

Work Cited

Johnson, Eric, M. “Open Source Shakespeare: An Experiment of Literary Technology,” Open Source Shakespeare: Search Shakespeare’s Works, Read the Texts, http://www.opensourceshakespeare.org/.

The Oxford Encyclopedia of Literary Theory Online

The Oxford Encyclopedia of Literary Theory Online is available through subscription and perpetual access, however a great number of articles are also available for free. Based on my observations, I would say around 40% of the articles are public access. The chief editor of this site is Paula Rabinowitz. Articles are published year-round in non-specified intervals; subject to a peer review process with multiple steps before publication to the site. Furthermore, each of the articles are written by different scholars and reviewed for quality control.

            The articles presented explore literary theory from cultures around the world and from multiple disciplines. The article Africa in the World: History and Historiographyby Esperanza Brizuela-Garcia details the theoretical breath of what this journal seeks to accomplish. The author discusses how Africa became recognized culturally by the west, and how the misconceptions of the early western scholars damaged the continent’s reputation. The article then goes into debunking the myths and postulating the importance of Africa culturally. The other articles associated with African history serve to explicate the ideas presented in this original article. Furthermore, this is a popular trend with most subject matter on the site; seeking to disprove misconceptions and promote a better viewpoint for literary theory to be presented.

            Navigation of the site is fairly straight forward. The IRL is equipped with a search bar located in the upper right quadrant, and a list of topics discussed in the encyclopedia runs across the top of the page. For example, I accessed African history from the displayed directory, and was presented with a descending list of articles. Articles not available to the public were displayed with a padlock, however free articles displayed a green circle with the word free written inside it. I selected the first article I deemed interesting and the article was presented vertically with citations following the document. This format is used throughout, and presents an efficient way of navigating data.

Works Cited

“The Oxford Encyclopedia of Literary Theory.” Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Literature, https://oxfordre.com/literature/page/literary-theory/the-oxford-encyclopedia-of-literary- theory.