W&M Anthologies-Canons Lab

The William & Mary Anthologies-Canons Lab brings together students focused in literary studies with those focused in data science.

Since its founding in Spring 2023, our Lab has explored how these disciplines can inform one another and has worked to develop areas for productive collaboration. How can thinking in terms of data raise new questions and bring new perspectives to the study of literature? How do literary objects, which are often seen as resistant to classification, present data science with novel challenges and questions? 

The Anthologies-Canons Lab’s current project examines general literary anthologies as an important form for representing the literary canon. To further frame our work, our Lab is currently focusing on general anthologies of African American literature.

General literary anthologies are collections of literary work by multiple authors which a) encompass a broad swath of literary history and b) include multiple forms of expressive writing. Such anthologies have been published for a long time and in many iterations, are often read in high school and university classes as well as by general readers, and change over time. Consequently, they provide an important instances of literary canons as they shift, distill, and expand. 

Anthology tables of contents are a form of data: lists of author names and titles of works. Our Lab collects and explores this data to see what it might show about patterns of--and changes in--literary value over time.