Why a 17th-Century Text Is the Perfect Starting Point for Reinventing the Book

Rebecca Rosen:

Good morning, class. I'd like you all to open your books to Act I, Scene 2, Line 398.

Pages rustle as everyone flips through their books in search of that spot.

"Usually there's a whole lot of shuffling," says Bryn Mawr professor Katharine Rowe. But not if the class is using an app she and Notre Dame professor Elliott Visconsi built. In their app of Shakespeare's Tempest students can just enter "1.2.398" and be transported there immediately. Or, alternatively, search for the words: "Full fathom five thy father lies."

That tool "gets my students on the line, at the same time, almost instantly. That's a big deal for a Shakespeare prof," she says. "We get our brains faster into the text that way."

Posted by Jim Zellmer at October 7, 2012 1:10 AM
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