reading with machines days 2

Today in class I introduced a juxta, which is a pretty amazing collation tool that juxtaposes versions of a text to compare them.  In my case, I'm generally interested in differences between texts.  For example in a recent research project I traced remarks at a panel through three different published versions.

Today though I showed my class the lyrics to "America" from West Side Story, juxtaposing the stage versus the movie lyrics, which are startlingly different.

link to interactive version

The students immediately keyed in on the far more negative stage lyrics.  In the above picture you can see that
Puerto Rico . . . 
You ugly island . . .
Island of tropic diseases. 

becomes the far more bland, if still negative, 

My heart?s devotion--
Let it sink back in the ocean. 

We had an interesting discussion about why a Hollywood movie from 1961 might different in the depiction of Puerto Ricans from an earlier stage production and the students came up with some excellent answers.  We had already done some pretty in depth history of Puerto Rican migration. 

source

We then watched the more recent Glee version of "America."

I asked the students to think about the representations of ethnicity in both performances of the song.  Why is Rita Moreno singing in 1961 with such an exaggerated accent to George Chakiris, a Greek-American?  Students identified the pressure to perform ethnic stereotypes. I then asked why, when there were clearly also many non Puerto Rican actors and actresses, minus the startling dark pancake make up on the 1961 version, was the accent still so over-pronounced?  How was the Glee performance both like and not-like the original. 

The use of both textual and film comparisons made for an interesting way to think about performing different identities.  

However it also got me thinking more about how using digital research methods is increasingly changing how I teach.  Sometimes when I'm talking about digital history to people who are less than enthusiastic, I tend to stress how it is really isn't that different than what historians have always done.  Truthfully, though, it is shifting both the way I teach and the kinds of questions I now know I can investigate in the past.