Beyond digitization? Digital humanities and the case of Hebrew literature

Abstract

AbstractThis short article discusses whether it matters if non-computational colleagues fail to understand our (i.e. the digital humanists) work. The case study of the article is Hebrew literature and its community of scholars: surprisingly, despite the fact that the initial conditions are promising, it would appear that the digital humanities do not find access into the departments of Hebrew literature and the journals dedicated to it easy to come by. The article examines the reasons for this and describes a possible remedy for it—one where a conceptual rather than a technical foundation would provide the basis for a fruitful and critical dialogue between computational researchers and the rest. Such an approach is necessary not just for the research of small-scale literatures but also for the development of (computational) literary studies in general.