A New Understanding of Moretti's"Distant Reading"from the Perspective of Digital Humanities
Franco Moretti,an Italian Marxist critic,first proposed"distant reading"in his"Conjectures on World Litera-ture"published in 2000.First of all,distant reading is inspired by the French Annales School's concepts of"longue durée","series history"and quantitative research.Secondly,New Criticism's close reading and Moretti's distant reading are different in three dimensions:the object of study(classical and non-classical),formal views(aesthetic and force)and critical methods(interpretation and explanation).Finally,Moretti's distant reading has undergone an upgrade from quantitative criticism to computational criticism as well as the transition from traditional humanities to digital humanities.The advantages of digital humanities lie in its massive archives,sophisticated algorithms and interdisciplinary collaboration.However,it also has limitations:the lack of subjective experience and emotional factors,the"pitfalls"of data and graphs,and the potential"imperialist"cooperative politics.