Oz in America: A Digital ArchiveDILANE MITCHELLFINAL PRESENTATIONENGLISH 475: TOPICS IN LITERATURE

Why the Wonderful Wizard of Oz ?*

The academic answer: The Wizard of Oz was published in 1900; it was the first truly American fairy tale. It has dozens of recreations and reincarnations (more on those later) that it has become part of American popular culture. It is as canonical as works such as Uncle Tom’s Cabin and Leaves of Grass. The real answer: I love Oz and didn’t mind spending several hours and days and weeks of my life researching and reading about Oz. *This question mark is horribly designed and I really didn’t want to use it, but by doing so I get to explain how horrible it is typographically speaking, so I left it.

Digital as Neutral

There is an insistence in academic conversation of the digital media as neutral: nonhierarchical, unbiased, without prejudice, and freely accessible. Digital tools will be the gateway to equality for marginal voices and accessible to everyone.

Digital as NeutralIn fact, the digital realm is anything but neutral. Anything built or displayed using computers is forced into a hierarchy because of computer input languages. Digital projects are subject to the issues of funding and support, which in turn, bring in bias and prejudice. (Who is providing funding and to what? What work is ignored?)

Digital Archives Falling “Flat”The fantasy of neutrality causes works to fall “flat.”Digital archives strip the works of all of features that make them move their readers in order to ensure mass appeal. Only part of these works is protected for future generations. Does authors, works, readers, and scholars a disservice. *

LegibilityEach digital archive is built different. There are differences in quality and structure. The guiding elements of the codex have been absorbed, so we don’t notice them anymore. We need guiding elements and standardization in digital archives so that users know how to use them and what to expect to find within them.

Politically*Works like Uncle Tom’s Cabin and Leaves of Grass are political in nature. Stowe and Whitman intended for their work to be political.Historically and still writing and reading were political acts and every piece had a political nature and motive. It remove or ignore the political aspects of these works is completely against the core of humanities research.

How Oz in America is DifferentAll of the progeny of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz make room for lots of political conversations. Real conversations can take place because Oz is a fantasy realm.Forums for those discussions can be anchored in relations to a specific progeny work.

Let’s Have All The Conversations