3.1 Background & Setting-up

3.1.1 Background

For this hands-on walkthrough, we will be working with A Frankenstein Atlas, reusing the data developed by the project and retracing some of the techniques applied to that data using QGIS. As noted by Jason Kelly (n.d.) on the project website:



Webpage for A Frankenstein Atlas
project 

"A Frankenstein Atlas explores Mary Shelley's novel Frankenstein from a spatial perspective. Inspired by research and theoretical approaches in literary mapping and historical geography, A Frankenstein Atlas provides scholars and students with a platform to study and experiment with Shelley's text … A Frankenstein Atlas was originally created as a class project for the course Machines and the Age of Invention, taught by Jason M. Kelly during Spring 2018. Using Frankenstein as its key text, the course explored the history of science and medical ethics during the 18th and 19th centuries. Topics discussed in class included grave robbing, dissection, gender, and human consciousness. Students in the course worked collaboratively to develop the schema for analysis as well as coding the text for integration and analysis using GIS [geographic information systems] ... The schema, data sets, and website is edited by Jason M. Kelly."


The project combines two datasets. The first dataset is based on Mary Shelley's classic novel Frankenstein, created by Jason Kelly's class. Each row of the Frankenstein data represents a location described in the novel, including geographic data, the corresponding passage of text, the coding  of the passage (characters, emotionality, aesthetic, etc.), and other features. This file is saved in a CSV format (comma-separated values).

The second dataset is the Ice Sheet data, based on polar explorations roughly contemporary with Shelley's novel (1870-1910). Rather than a single file, this dataset is a zipped folder that - once downloaded and unzipped - reveals 18 separate files, including the shapefiles (SHP extension) and their necessary associated files.


References