{"product_id":"reductive-reading-sarah-allison-9781421425627","title":"Reductive Reading: A Syntax of Victorian Moralizing","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eHow practices from the digital analysis of texts both simplify and enhance traditional literary criticism.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eHonorable Mention, NAVSA Best Book of the Year by the North American Victorian Studies Association\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWhat is to be gained by reading George Eliot's \u003ci\u003eMiddlemarch \u003c\/i\u003efrom an Excel spreadsheet, or the novels of Charles Dickens through a few hundred dialogue tags--those he said\/she saids that bring his characters to life? Sarah Danielle Allison's \u003ci\u003eReductive Reading\u003c\/i\u003e argues that the greatest gift the computational analysis of texts has given to traditional criticism is not computational at all. Rather, one of the most powerful ways to generate subtle reading is to be reductive; that is, to approach literary works with specific questions and a clear roadmap of how to look for the answers. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAllison examines how patterns that form little part of our conscious experience of reading nevertheless structure our experience of books. Exploring Victorian moralizing at the level of the grammatical clause, she also reveals how linguistic patterns comment on the story in the process of narrating it. Delving into \u003ci\u003eThe London Quarterly Review\u003c\/i\u003e, as well as the work of Eliot, Dickens, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Anthony Trollope, William Makepeace Thackeray, and other canonical Victorian writers, the book models how to study nebulous and complex stylistic effects. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eA manifesto for and a model of how digital analysis can provide daringly simple approaches to complex literary problems, \u003ci\u003eReductive Reading\u003c\/i\u003e introduces a counterintuitive computational perspective to debates about the value of fiction and the ethical representation of people in literature.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Sarah Allison\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-10:\u003c\/b\u003e 1421425629\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9781421425627\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Johns Hopkins University Press\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 06\/01\/2018\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 184\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Hardcover\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 0.66lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 9.10h x 6.00w x 0.70d\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eReview Citation(s): \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eChoice\u003c\/i\u003e 01\/01\/2019","brand":"Sarah Allison","offers":[{"title":"Hardcover","offer_id":44365213270271,"sku":"9781421425627","price":52.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0662\/2982\/9887\/files\/img_9b2e96c9-7360-4585-8621-587b873e2aa5.jpg?v=1697057256","url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/reductive-reading-sarah-allison-9781421425627","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}