A New Life: Textual Investigations
This project is composed of two parts:
- The first is a visualization of the interactions between Levin and the other characters in A New Life. Given that much of the book's conflict revolves around information (or the lack thereof), this visualization intends to give insight into how power dynamics between characters shift over the course of the novel as they learn new information and begin to strive towards their own goals and agendas. The visualization effectively charts the metadata of the conversations in A New Life; readers can choose to filter based on characters involved or type of conversation. For example, a reader can choose to view "Conversations between Levin and Pauline," or "Conversations between Levin and Pauline where Levin learns new information." The visualization will then display where conversations that fit this description occur over the course of the book.
- The second aims to find specific textual differences between the 2nd edition manuscript and the published novel and analyze them through close reading. This will complement the meta-analysis of Part One by offering concrete examples of how Malamud's refinements reflect his attempts to create power dynamics via the use of information in A New Life. Readers should therefore also have the opportunity in this section to analyze how character relations change not only over the course of the novel, but how they change between editions as well.
While this project operates under the general assumption that information correlates to power in A New Life, it does not intend to force the reader into specific conclusions related to the specifics of those power dynamics. Instead it hopes to more readily enable the reader to make theirown conclusions and interpretations through both close and distant reading.
Contents:
- Introduction
- Google sheets visualizations
- Explanation of metadata + comments from the coder
- Close reading & textual examples
- Voyant visualizations
- Discussions of weaknesses + coding
- Conclusion