ABSTRACT
The decade since Lancashire's 2002 survey has witnessed an explosion in the development of new digital tools for Shakespeare studies. These include applications for computer-assisted text analysis, databases for bibliographical and lexicographical research, resources for theatre and performance histories, platforms for research publication, archives of digitized materials in various media, and virtual environments for mapping and visualization. Empirical research in literary studies, though still peripheral, gathered strength in the 1980s, exemplified by the work of Pierre Bourdieu in the wider area of literary sociology and John Burrows in the more focused domain of computational stylistics. Gabriel Egan recently proposed a software tool to trace latent compositorial habits and identify individual compositors computationally, with more accuracy than ever before. However, any discussion of computational tools must acknowledge the dynamic and iterative nature of the digital medium, as well as its ephemeral and technologically dependent aspects.
