Creative Commons Flickr image by zgrredek
En un lugar de la Mancha, de cuyo nombre no quiero acordarme…
In a village of La Mancha, the name of which I have no desire to call to mind…
(Miguel de Cervantes; translation by John Ormsby)
These famous words are a curious beginning to an incredible novel written 400 years ago by Spanish writer Miguel de Cervantes. From the very first sentence we realize that this isn’t going to be any typical story, and our seminar this semester will be far from typical too! In this first-year seminar students will get to know more about what many consider the first modern novel—beyond windmills and Broadway’s “To Dream the Impossible Dream.” We will see Don Quixote (DQ) as a Spanish cultural icon and literary masterpiece that continues to be vibrant and relevant in our Digital Age. A Google search of Don Quixote yields more than 7 million results, while the Spanish spelling Don Quijote gives more than 4 million. In Digital Don Quixote we both use the digital to aid us in the study of selections of Cervantes’ novel, and we use the novel as a springboard into many of the major topics of digital studies (DS) and digital humanities. Some of the topics explored in our readings and blogposts are Don Quixote and (digital) identity; Don Quixote, Games, and Game Studies; Don Quixote’s library, Google Books and the Future of Libraries; Authors, Copyrights, and Creative Commons; Don Quixote in a MOOC; and Don Quixote in Digital Humanities. Here is a copy of our syllabus for Fall 2014 First Year Seminar Digital Don Quixote and you can read student blogposts here. Other pages that contain some of our activities are listed in the menu to the right.
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