Towards the implementation of text and discourse theory in computer-assisted textual analysis

Humanities computing (HC) has failed to integrate into its practices many of the key theoretical elements of contemporary text and discourse theory. This has in turn contributed to the marginalization of HC in research and teaching. Outdated theoretical models must be abandoned in order to develop a critical discourse based on the insights of HC. HC projects remain far too attached to micro-analyses and have not developed the theoretical and methodological tools necessary to undertake systemic macro-analyses on the level of discourse. Given that texts are a mixture of determinate and dynamic systems, recent developments in chaos theory may be of help in modelling the interrelationship of these elements at discourse level.Donald Bruce is Associate Professor of Romance Languages at the University of Alberta. His research interests include literary theory, XIXth century French literature, science and literature, and translation. He recently edited an issue ofRecherches Sémiotiques/Semiotic Inquiry on Literature and Ideology and is presently working on a project entitled,The Socio-semiotic Nexus: Jules Vallès and the Discourse of the Commune.