Mapping the Punch Brotherhood: Methodological Approaches to Networking and Collaboration (1841-1900)

Punch (1841-1992, 1996-2002) is a fundamental source for exploration of the Victorian Period, presenting a weekly satirical summary of current events. Multiple histories have been created regarding the periodical, both about individual members and their weekly meetings (see M. H.

Spielmann's original history, Adrian Arthur's history on Mark Lemon (head editor) and Richard Altick's history of the beginnings of Punch. These works elaborate on important business and biographical facets of the periodical, and the character of the Punch Brotherhood (a self-described literary circle formed of paid, long-term contributors to Punch).

Despite this, dominant histories have not fully explored the Brotherhood's business workings away from its weekly meetings. Building from Patrick Leary's excellent study of oral culture in Punch, my research moves away from understanding Punch as based through its weekly meetings, instead investigating the web of correspondence outside of these meetings to enrich our understanding of how Punch functioned.

New Digital Humanities tools present the opportunity to visualise and gauge the complex networks that formed the periodical. These tools show great potential in literary network studies despite some resistance towards these methods, as acknowledged by Katherine Bode, who states that 'the insistence...that quantitative methods have no place in literary history - has been repeated many times' (2014).

Great advancements have since been made in digitally mapping materials from the Victorian period (see Virtual Victorians (2016), CLiC Dickens, and Natalie Houston's work on Victorian Poetics (2014)). However, limited methodological work has explored the possibilities of digital network mapping techniques for Punch, and Victorian network studies more widely, which is where this project is situated.

Digital mapping approaches will be used to visualise networks made between Punch members, and their literary and business circles, channeling large quantities of letters into a visual format to easily identify patterns. Large quantities of correspondence, and key contextual information and practical details, will be included in the mapped data. These findings will be contextualised through close reading methods.

Beyond contributing to understandings of Punch and its wealth of networking approaches, this project contributes to periodical culture, and Digital Humanities, more widely, through its innovative methodological approach. Working with existing tools, this project develops this important methodology for Digital Humanities, considering where its usage could be extended, and how the data it presents can be interpreted, alongside non-digital methods, in tracking correspondence between literary circles.