1. 11/25/2014 Nadége Pironneau Dr. Prof. K. Ferguson ENGL 391W-01 Digital Literary Analysis

2. INTRODUCTION ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________  This presentation will demonstrate how one of Franco Moretti’s theoretical concepts from his text applies to the chosen text of my final project Then & Now: Comparing and Contrasting Lyrics of Two Decades.  In the following slides I will briefly introduce Moretti’s concept and the corpus for my DLA investigation.  I will then support my argument of whether or not my text is relevant to Moretti’s ideas.

3. Keynote Speaker: Franco Moretti Moretti, a literary scholar, discusses in one of his books--Graphs, Maps, Trees: Abstract Models for Literary History--his theory for defining what GENRE is.

4. “Structures, because they introduce repetition in history, and hence regularity, order, pattern; and temporary because they’re short (ten, twenty, fifty years,… Now ‘temporary structures’ is also a good definition for—genres: morphological arrangements that last in time, but always only for some time.”

5. Genre is not stable, permanent, or ‘real’… Genre is something that changes over time and in the case of books usually shares themes such as a historical event, fiction, drama, romance, young adult, science fiction, etcetera. Genres cease and then return when they are “back in style” so to speak. But this genre that most are familiar with, that of theme, is not REAL. According to Moretti, genres have less to do with what is INSIDE the novel and more to do with what is OUTSIDE of the novel. The life span of a genre is determined by the world. How does this relate to my final project?

6. Then & Now: Comparing and Contrasting Lyrics of Two Decades My final project compares and contrasts the lyrics of American songwriters from two different decades on the basis of content like the prevalence of sexually explicit or violent language to gage whether or not American culture has somehow changed. It does not pay specific attention to musical “genre”.

7. 1. Connecting the texts Moretti’s text * Moretti theorizes that a genre lasts from anywhere between 10-50 years. My text * The text of my project, the corpus, is 2 sets of 40 lyrics from 10 year periods: 1980- 1989 and 2000-2009. vs.

8. 2. Connecting the texts Books= Lyrics These lyrics function the same as books in which text mining can be performed. Like Moretti’s text my texts’ genre is also influenced by external rather than internal factors. Rock, for example, only lasts as long as it is still listened to. “Billboard Number One Hits 1980-1989” and “Best of the 2000s: All No.1 Songs” 

9. CONCLUSION ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ My text is relevant to Moretti’s concept

10. Credits Photo @ http://elmcip.net/person/franco-morettihttp://elmcip.net/person/franco-moretti Moretti, Franco. GRAPHS, MAPS, TREES: Abstract Models for Literary History. London: Verso, 2007. Print