Visualizing Literature

What is it?

Visualizing the Common Core Literature is an educational technology designed to engage high school students in digital humanities, or the exploration of ideas, themes and concepts through digital visualization tools.

How it works

Content from books published prior to 1924 is generally available off-copyright. VisualCCL uses these books as datasets. This makes it easy to quantify of explore the ebb and flow of themes and ideas, or the evolution of characters.

We invite you to engage your students in exploring this content, and share your insights back with our community.

Status

In its early stages, VisualCCL provides a series of pre-set visualizations, and operates on a small list of books. Track our twitter feed to receive updates about book/viz additions.

We are currently seeking support to develop the project further. If you’d like to chip in, please get in touch!

Sample Visualizations

Virtue and Vice in Odyssey

There are a number of tensions and struggles throughout Odyssey. How does Homer treat the tension between virtue and vice? This report samples a number of datasets to visualize this tension.

'Noble' and 'Poor' in Pride and Prejudice

Load up this charting engine and enter "poor" and "noble". The chart illustrates usage of these two terms throughout the book's text. Why, for instance, might nobility be excluded in Chapters 34 through 54?