love and suspense in Paris noir
love and suspense in Paris noir is a multimedia digital humanities project that explores themes of race, identity, and literary suspense through the lens of the Black experience in Paris.
- created by Tyechia Thompson, professor and researcher in African American literature. currently a professor at Virgina Tech.
- Published online though the Illinois Open Publishing Network
- built using Scalar.
- focuses on Rendezvous Eighteen, a book published in 1997 written by a black author Jake Lamar.
- the project was published in 2021
About the Project
The project itself finds us centered around this analysis of Rendezvous Eighteenth, a novel by Jake Lamar, and sort of places this text as the foundation of exploring these broader cultural as well as literary themes. This project takes it upon itself to not present the information in a linear format, but rather as multiple interconnected “paths”. which allows users to almost feel as if they are navigating the content in different lights, depending on their own personal interests. These pathways involve literary analysis, context on the author, as well as multimedia elements such as videos and links, creating a really well-versed, layered/ immersive experience. The Project is also very transparent with how long the viewer can expect to spend on it depending on the pathways they take!.
The Scope
The scope of this project extends beyond this text; it analyzes, it takes Lamar’s work and situates it in a space with the historical and cultural context of other black writers in Paris. This project discusses ideologies of migration, identity, and urban spaces, all to challenge the romanticized views of Paris. The project is significant in its own regard to literary studies as it expands these interpretations of it and suspense though a new, more racial/transnational lens. In the same counterpart its significant to digital humanities as it sees/shows how a digital platform can take a traditional analysis on literature and turn it into a more interactive, public-engaged, and accessible form of scholarship!