Skim Reading, a Flat Canon, and the Question of Value

Abstract

This short reflection considers how the Eighteenth Century Collections Online database has changed scholarship, sometimes for the worse. Through the example of a paper I wrote on the Pacific Northwest sea otter trade in Canada, I argue that more texts do not equal more knowledge. This essay suggests two positive ways digital resources can assist eighteenth-century studies: freetext searches of primary texts and humanities-based linked knowledge such as Orlando: Women’s Writing in the British Isles.