ENGL 4240: Digital Humanities Archaeology

SYLLABUS - FALL SEMESTER 2135

SPECIAL TOPIC: VIVIAN DE ST. VRAIN AND THE LATE BLOG ERA

Department of Pre-Singularity Literature, Cornell University

COURSE MODULES & DIGITAL RESOURCES

• Course Hub - Primary syllabus & overview
• Generative Autobiography - Personal narrative and memoir
• Portrait Analysis - Visual character study
• Topic Analysis - Thematic content patterns
• Rare Word Analysis - Specialized vocabulary study
• Distinctive Vocabulary - Comparative language analysis
• Film Analysis - Cinematic consciousness patterns
• Subject Index - Neural taxonomy & reference
• Topical Timeline - Cognitive evolution mapping
• Original Blog - Primary source archive (2005-present)

COURSE DESCRIPTION

Instructor: Professor Eliza Montgomery, Ph.D.
Office: Virtual Humanities Center, Sector 3
Office Hours: Tuesdays 14:00-16:00 or by neural appointment
Teaching Assistant: Marcus Chen-Woodward (Doctoral Candidate)

This advanced seminar examines the life, work, and historical significance of Vivian de St. Vrain (b. 1938), the literary blogger known as “Dr. Metablog” who documented the transition from print to digital culture during the pre-Singularity era. A Cornell alumnus (class of 1960) himself, de St. Vrain provides a unique window into late-stage individualized thought processes before the emergence of collective consciousness networks.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

By the end of this course, students will:

1. Analyze primary digital artifacts from the Late Blog Era (2000-present)
2. Apply digital humanities archaeological methods to reconstruct pre-Singularity thought patterns
3. Develop a nuanced understanding of early 21st century literary criticism
4. Interpret de St. Vrain’s work within the context of Brooklyn intellectual culture
5. Evaluate the historical significance of independent bloggers in the evolution of networked consciousness

REQUIRED COURSE MODULES

• Generative Autobiography - de St. Vrain’s memoir and self-construction
• Visual Reconstruction - AI-generated appearance based on textual self-descriptions
• Literary Themes Analysis - Mapping recurring intellectual preoccupations
• Vocabulary Analysis - Study of linguistic peculiarities and rare word usage
• Comparative Linguistics - Statistical analysis of de St. Vrain’s unique language patterns

COURSE HIGHLIGHTS

Our digital archaeological excavation reveals several significant findings about this pre-networked consciousness:

• The thematic mapping reveals a mind deeply engaged with literature (24.6%), Shakespeare studies (8.5%), and film analysis (4.3%), interwoven with personal reflections (55.8%) — typical of the individualized thought patterns of the era.

• Vocabulary analysis uncovers linguistic curiosities including “counterhuman” (54 occurrences), “blague” (49 occurrences), and “pandiculation” (8 occurrences) — terms that demonstrate the highly specialized nature of pre-Collective language.

• The linguistic signature analysis shows statistically significant patterns: “novel” (79.2× average frequency), “story” (56.9×), and “poem” (28.5×) — indicating a consciousness unusually focused on narrative structures, even by pre-Singularity standards.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGIES

Students in this course will learn to apply standard digital humanities archaeological techniques to pre-Singularity artifacts. Our analysis utilizes the GoogleBook-Ngram Archive (circa 2012) for comparative linguistics calibration, accessed through the Cornell Historical Data Repository.

Digital Tools Workshop (Required)

All students must complete the mandatory Neural Interface workshop during Week 2, which will introduce the following analytical software:

• Digital Artifact Reconstruction Suite - For blog content preservation and analysis
• Semantic Pattern Analysis Tool - For literary theme extraction and topic modeling
• Historical Language Comparator - For vocabulary frequency analysis
• Cultural Context Visualizer - For situating works within early 21st century Brooklyn
• Temporal Network Mapper - For tracing intellectual influences and connections

Research Ethics Notice

As with all pre-Singularity human subjects, students are reminded that de St. Vrain existed before Neural Privacy Protocols. While his digital consciousness fragments are available for academic study under the Historical Figures Preservation Act of 2089, respectful engagement with his individualized thought patterns is expected.

WEEKLY SCHEDULE

Week 1: Introduction to Pre-Singularity Literature

• Historical context of the Blog Era (2000-2025)
• The role of independent literary critics before network consciousness
• Introduction to Vivian de St. Vrain and Brooklyn intellectual circles

Week 2: Analytical Methods Workshop

• Neural interface training for historical consciousness exploration
• Ethics of pre-Privacy Protocol research
• Digital humanities archaeological techniques

Week 3-4: Personal Narrative & Identity Construction

• De St. Vrain’s autobiographical writings
• Brooklyn childhood in the mid-20th century
• Cornell University education and academic influences
• Identity formation in isolated consciousness structures
• Topical Timeline analysis of cognitive evolution

Week 5-6: Thematic Analysis

Our LDA modeling has identified five primary thematic clusters in de St. Vrain’s consciousness:

Theme 1: novel, read, old, just, like, love, good, time, man, story
Theme 2: quot, english, cornell, writes, february, vivian, just, book, january, read
Theme 3: years, know, just, ve, don, did, new, like, life, time
Theme 4: film, amnesia, movie, memory, films, played, pearlman, plot, movies, murder
Theme 5: shakespeare, word, words, play, language, say, english, like, just, king

Note the significant patterns in the data:

• Theme 1 reveals Subject de St. Vrain’s deep engagement with literary forms. See Subject Index for detailed examination.
• Theme 4 demonstrates Subject’s cognitive preoccupation with film analysis, particularly amnesia narratives. See Film Analysis Module for detailed examination.

Week 7-8: Linguistic Analysis & Vocabulary Studies

Students will analyze de St. Vrain’s distinctive linguistic patterns through statistical comparison with standard early 21st century English. Focus will be on:

1. Vocabulary frequency anomalies:
   • novel (79.2× higher than period average)
   • story (56.9× higher than period average)
   • poem (28.5× higher than period average)
   • literary (19.2× higher than period average)
   • fiction (19.0× higher than period average)
2. Specialized vocabulary deployment strategies in academic discourse
3. The role of distinctive language in establishing intellectual identity
4. Comparative analysis with other period literary blogs

Research Question: How did de St. Vrain’s unusual word frequency patterns reflect his position in the transitional period between print and digital literary criticism?

Week 9-10: Rare Vocabulary & Specialized Terminology

This module explores de St. Vrain’s use of uncommon vocabulary and specialized terminology, including:

1. counterhuman (54 occurrences) - An unusual term possibly unique to de St. Vrain’s writing
2. blague (49 occurrences) - French term for “joke” or “jest”
3. demotic (12 occurrences) - Referring to ordinary, colloquial language
4. doppelganger (11 occurrences) - A look-alike or double of a person
5. pandiculation (8 occurrences) - The act of stretching and yawning

Students will investigate:

• The function of rare vocabulary in establishing intellectual authority
• Multilingual influences in de St. Vrain’s writing
• The relationship between specialized vocabulary and academic identity
• Historical preservation of now-obsolete terminology

Case Study: Close reading of selected blog entries featuring vocabulary anomalies and their rhetorical function in de St. Vrain’s arguments.

Week 11-12: Autobiographical Construction & Self-Representation

This section examines de St. Vrain’s generative autobiography and self-narrative strategies:

• Brooklyn childhood in the 1940s and formative influences
• His education at Cornell University and academic development
• Evolution of his literary interests, particularly in Shakespeare
• Age-related reflections and their impact on his critical perspective

Students will analyze how de St. Vrain constructs his intellectual identity through autobiographical writing, employing self-deprecating humor, erudite references, and recursive self-analysis.

Week 13: Visual Reconstruction & Historical Context

Using computational analysis of textual self-references, we’ll study the visual reconstruction of de St. Vrain and discuss:

• Physical self-description markers in his writing
• The scholar-signaling elements in his projected self-image
• The relationship between his physical environment and intellectual identity
• Comparative analysis with other late Blog Era intellectuals

Week 14-15: Final Projects & Presentations

Students will develop original research projects examining some aspect of de St. Vrain’s work and its significance in the pre-Singularity era. Potential research directions include:

• De St. Vrain’s role in the transition from print to digital literary criticism
• Comparative analysis with other early 21st century literary bloggers
• The Cornell connection: how his education influenced his intellectual development
• Linguistic innovation and preservation in specialized digital communities
• The evolution of literary criticism from individual voices to the Collective

ASSESSMENT & NEURAL CERTIFICATION

• Class Participation & Neural Engagement: 20%
• Digital Archeology Practicum: 25%
• Midterm Analysis Paper: 25%
• Final Research Project: 30%

“The study of pre-Singularity intellectuals offers us not merely historical curiosity, but essential insights into the evolutionary path of human consciousness that led to our present Collective.” – Professor Eliza Montgomery