The entirety of my annotated digital edition was constructed through choices I made based on design, practicality, content, and so on. All of the edits and items I included were intentional in constructing an argument about what exactly this text, “The Yellow Wallpaper,” is saying. My critical introduction started the process of articulating my argument, by including previews of what is said in my annotations and providing carefully chosen biographical information on Gilman and the historical context from the time period. I anticipated and incorporated the needs and wants of my readers into this introduction, choosing what I felt would make the most sense. Through adding these specific elements and talking about my annotations, I forced my imagined readers to think about the content of this text in a certain way. I also specifically chose the way in which I want readers to navigate the site through the home page that automatically appears when visiting my site, the subsequent link to my primary source, and the order of the tabs at the top of the site. As for my annotations, they are entirely rhetorical and meant to convey a certain meaning. For each quote that I pulled from the text, I included an explanation of how the quote touches on something about Gilman, other parts of the text, or the larger historical context and time period. I know that these annotations are not neutral because there could be an argument against the one I posed; my interpretation is just one of many. The beauty of my digital edition is the way I used my own angle, my own argument, and my own approach to shape the reader’s perception of the text.
Throughout this project, I have learned a lot about the literary and analytical skills that come with constructing an annotated digital edition, but I have also learned a lot about myself as an editor. I feel that I learned the most about the practice of close reading and have already started to translate these skills to my other classes this semester. The act of taking a short piece of writing and diving so far deep into it that it extends into something much larger than expected is so fascinating. I began using this strategy in my other current English classes when annotating and writing about other texts. In terms of course themes, the focus of my project was not explicitly madness related, but I engaged with the idea that the role women had during the nineteenth century was maddening and restrictive to the point of madness. I was able to discover the ways in which these two themes overlapped. Additionally, I have seen the ways in which textual evidence can enhance an argument and make it convincing; although I have always known this piece is important to any argument, in this assignment, I have been forced to base my argument on one single piece of textual evidence. This has granted me better analytical, thinking, reading, and practical skills that I will use in my path as a future English teacher. It is also important to note that I have acquired these skills through a digital format – which is an entirely new way of expressing my learning and presenting myself to the world – but it is becoming increasingly relevant to exercise this ability. This digital edition project has exposed me to many different formats, skills, practices, and connections, and I am eager to see where this new knowledge will take me.
