The Additive Tendencies of Digital Humanities

I think one of the most important points Risam makes is that adding to the digital archive is not enough to disrupt the remnants of colonialism and imperialism that are hanging around, as a result of the housing of so many of these archives in academia and the university. They points at the Whitman, Blake and Rossetti Archives as examples of the dangers of assuming the canonical digital humanities are no different from the canonical literary works. It makes sense to me that we should work to contextualize how and why things came together the way they did, because, as Risam notes, adding voice is great but they risk being dwarfed by the shadow of the canonical works in the digital realm as well. I think this sort of context and possibility for reorientation is one of the greatest potential roles for digital humanities, as the dream of completely democratized knowledge woud allow for anyone's voices to be heard and almost every perspective to be represented. HOWEVER, as Risam points out, most of the DH projects coming out of the literary world still propegate the imperial colonialism of the university. I really do think the correct thing to do is provide context for what is already there and point out the problematic aspects of the canon, as well as adding more voices and perspectives.