Literary texts and the state of the language: The role of the computer

We should follow Mark Olsen's lead and think with maximum ambition of the role of the computer in supporting literary research of the highest order. Thus the computer enables us to answer one of the great questions of literary criticism: how does a given writer contribute to the changing language? We can now chart the influence of given writers by correlating their words and phrasing with computerized dictionaries so as to produce profiles and histories of the way words have entered the language.Dennis Taylor is a professor of English at Boston College and a nineteenth century specialist. His two most recent books areHardy's Metres and Victorian Prosody andHardy's Literary Language and Victorian Philology, both from Clarendon Press, Oxford.     

Empirical literary research on women and readers

Both traditional and computerized scholars face problems when they attempt empirical research on women writers and women readers using currently available computational tools. This essay discusses some factors that have inhibited empirical research; it develops its examples from work in progress on 18th century English poetry and on reader responses. A number of large linguistic and text databases are almost useless for research on women writers because works by women are either not included or represented by easily accessible, rather than editorially clean, texts. Traditional and contemporary reader response studies are also insufficiently empirical for reasons of sexual bias or flaws in research design.Rosanne G. Potter is a Professor at Iowa State University, a teacher of drama and Women Studies, and editor ofLiterary Computing and Literary Criticism: Theoretical and Practical Essays on Theme and Rhetoric (University of Pennsylvania Press, 1989). She has published essays inCHum, Style, Modern Drama, and in a number of collections on humanities computing. She is currently building a large database containing the texts of, and reader responses to, ten modern plays.     

Computer modeling and critical theory

The explicit consideration of literary theory has become increasingly important both in the field of textual studies generally and in undergraduate literature courses. But theory can seem vague and inconsequential to undergraduates. Our students use hypertext to model intertextuality and the Linear Modeling Kit (a software program we have developed) to model structuralist ideas about narrative. In making computer models, students explore the implications of analytic ideas by attempting to represent them in formal (in the sense of programmable) terms. Our experience shows that such modeling stimulates student questioning and discussion of marked precision and sophistication.Peter Havholm and Larry Stewart, both Professors of English at The College of Wooster, have collaborated on the use of computers in the teaching of literature since 1987 and have published several papers on the subject. They won an EDUCOM/NCRIPTAL Award for Distinguished Curricular Innovation in 1989. Stewart is co-author of A Guide to Literary Criticism and Research (3rd ed., Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1996). Havholm recently returned to teaching after fifteen years in administration. He has published Kipling and Fantasy, anthologized in Harold Orel, ed., Critical Essays on Rudyard Kipling (Boston: G.K. Hall, 1989), 92–105.     

Authorship attribution

This paper considers the problem of quantifying literary style and looks at several variables which may be used as stylistic fingerprints of a writer. A review of work done on the statistical analysis of change over time in literary style is then presented, followed by a look at a specific application area, the authorship of Biblical texts.David Holmes is a Principal Lecturer in Statistics at the University of the West of England, Bristol with specific responsibility for co-ordinating the research programmes in the Department of Mathematical Sciences. He has taught literary style analysis to humanities students since 1983 and has published articles on the statistical analysis of literary style in theJournal of the Royal Statistical Society, History and Computing, andLiterary and Linguistic Computing. He presented papers at the ACH/ALLC conferences in 1991 and 1993.     

‘An ocean where each kind. . .’: Statistical analysis and some major determinants of literary style

The statistical analysis of literary texts has yielded valuable results, not least when it has treated of the frequency patterns of very common words. But, whereas particular frequency patterns have usually been examined as discrete phenomena, it is possible to correlate the frequency profiles of all the very common words, to subject the resulting correlation matrix to eigen analysis, and to present the results in graphic form. The specimens offered here deal, first, with differences among Jane Austen's characters and, secondly, with differences between authors. The most striking general differences among the authors studied relate to historical eras and authorial gender.     

“Literary studies: A computer assisted teaching methodology”

We used TACT computer software to teach Joseph Conrad's novel Heart of Darkness to BA (Hops) students at the University of Luton in England. Conrad's novel is one of the texts used in the Language and New Literatures modules (units). In these modules we combine analytical approaches to literary texts with linguistic methods. We used TACT to reinforce the understanding of the text of Heart of Darkness achieved through such a combination of methods. An exposure to the computer-based approaches to the text described in this article made the students' interaction with the text a more complex and rewarding experience.Jon Mills is a Lecturer in Linguistics, University of Luton. His research interests include technology enhanced learning, lexicology, and the Cornish language. Recent publication: Computers in Applied Linguistics in Solving Language Problems: From General to Applied Linguistics R.R.K. Hartmann, ed. Exeter: Exeter University Press (1996). ISBN 0 85989 484 3Dr. Balasubramanyam Chandramohan is a senior Lecturer in Linguistics, University of Luton. His research interests include Literary Stylistics; Language Variation, especially through comparative study of language corpora. Recent Publication: A Study in Trans-Ethnicity in Modern South Africa: The Writings of Alex La Guma (1925–1985) (Lewiston, NY: Edwin Mellen, 1992), 292 pp.; ISBN 0-7734-9186-4. Code-switching and Literary Texts: a pedagogical experience, Proceedings of Summer School on Code-switching and Language Contact (Ljouwert/Leeuwarden, Holland: Fryske Academy, 1995), pp. 299–301.     

Computerizing biblical literature

Interpretation of literary texts is a multidimensional task requiring students to master a variety of skills and to acquire factual knowledge in diverse areas. The use of the World Wide Web in conjunction with student computer accounts has allowed me to create a virtual classroom in which students can explore many historical and theoretical aspects of interpretation through the use of HTML tutorials and Web resources. The discussion of the literary text in a community of scholars can take center stage in the physical classroom.Charles T. Davis, III is Professor of Philosophy and Religion at Appalachian State University where he teaches and engages in research in New Testament Studies. He is the author of Confession and Canon, Perspectives on Witness and Translation: Essays in Honor of John E. Steely, The Edwin Mellan Press, 1993 and Speaking of Jesus, CSA Press, 1978.