Abstract
"Before You Read" is a review essay of Katherine Bode's Reading by Numbers: Recalibrating the Literary Field (London: Anthem Press, 2012). It encapsulates Bode’s investigation of a massive digital archive called AustLit and highlights areas of marginalization and omission that she uncovered in the current historical record of Australian authorship and publishing. From nationalistic assumptions, to gender trends, to the relationship between colonizer and colonized, Bode systematically challenges the existing scholarly narrative. Additionally, the book offers a unique case study of qualitative methods in literary study, demonstrating the value of "reading" the numbers behind a comprehensive corpus, versus elevating selected canonical pieces as hallmarks of history.
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