literary lab pamphlet 1

7/30/2019 Literary Lab Pamphlet 1

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LiteraryLab

Pamphle

SarahAllisonRyanHeuser

MathewJockersFrancoMorettiMichael

Witmore

Quaniaive Formalism:

an Experimen

1

AB

January 15, 2011


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Pamphles of he SanfordLiteraryLab

IISSN 2164-1757 (online version)

IISSN 2164-3431 (prin version)


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Sarah Allison

Ryan Heuser

Mathew Jockers

Franco Moreti

Michael Wimore

Quaniaive Formalism: an Experimen

This paper is he repor o a sudy conduced by ve people our a Sanord, and one

a he Universiy o Wisconsin which ried o esablish wheher compuer-generaed

algorihms could recognize lierary genres. You ake David Coppereld, run i hrough a

program wihou any human inpu unsupervised, as he expression goes and ... can

he program gure ou wheher is a gohic novel or a Bildungsroman? The answer is,

undamenally, Yes: bu a Yes wih so many complicaions ha i is necessary o look a he

enire process o our sudy. These are new mehods we are using, and wih new mehods

he process is almos as imporan as he resuls.

1. Prologue: Docuscope Reads Shakespeare

During he Fall o 2008, Franco Moreti was visiing Madison, where Michael Wimore in-

roduced him o work he and Jonahan Hope had been doing on Shakespeares dramaic

genres, using a ex agging device known as Docuscope, a hand-curaed corpus o sev-

eral million English words (and srings o words) ha had been sored ino grammaical,

semanic and rheorical caegories.1

1 See Jonahan Hope and Michael Wimore, The Very Large Texual Objec: A Prosheic Reading o Shakespeare,

Early Modern Literary Studies9.3 (January, 2004): 6.1-36; Wimore and Hope, Shakespeare by he Numbers: On he

Linguisic Texure o he Lae Plays in Early Modern Tragicomedy, eds. Subha Mukherji and Raphael Lyne (London:Boydell and Brewer, 2007), 133-53; Hope and Wimore, The Hundredh Psalm o he Tune o Green Sleeves:

Digial Approaches Shakespeares Language o Genre, Shakespeare Quarterly61.3, Special Issue: New Media

Approaches o Shakespeare, ed. Kaherine Rowe (Fall 2010): 357-90; and Wimores blog, www.winedarksea.org.


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Docuscope is essenially a smar dicionary: i consiss o a lis o over 200 million pos-

sible srings o English, each assigned o one o 101 uncional linguisic caegories called

Language Acion Types (LATs).2 When Docuscope reads a ex, i does so by looking

or words, and srings o words, ha i can recognize ha is o say, ha i can mach o

one o is 101 LATs. When his happens, he associaed LAT is credied wih one appear-

ance. For example, since Docuscope assigns I and me o he LAT FirsPerson, heiroccurrence in a ex is recorded as an appearance o he LAT FirsPerson.3

Based on hese couns, Hope and Wimore used unsupervised acor analysis a acor,

here, being a patern ha includes some caegories, in variable proporions, and excludes

ohers o creae porrais o received genre disincions such as hose made by he edi-

ors o he Firs Folio (Heminges and Condell), and o he genre o lae romances ha was

rs idenied in he nineeenh cenury. Mulivariae analyses and clusering echniques

made groupings o he plays ha corresponded no only o convenional genre group-

ings, bu also picked ou exs ha criics had idenied as ouliers. 4 Thus, in clusering

Shakespeares Folio plays, he program managed o ake Henry VIIIou o he Hisory playscluser and place i near oher lae plays, a re-adjusmen rom he iniial Folio designa-

ions ha laer criics have advocaed as well. One can see his grouping patern in gure

1 below, aken rom an early complee linkage clusering o he plays.

Aer seeing hese resuls, Moreti asked Wimore wheher he would consider clusering nov-

elisic genres. Wimore agreed, and a meeing was planned or February 2009 a Sanord.

2 For Docuscope, see David Kauer, Suguru Ishizaki, Brian Buler, Je Collins, The Power o Words: Unveiling the

Speaker and Writers Hidden Cra (Lawrence Erlbaum Associaes: New Jersey and London, 2004). A ascinaing

discussion o how he program came o be designed and an early prcis o is caegories can be ound a: htp://

www.beterwriing.ne/projecs/ed01/dsc_ed01.hml, accessed 3 March 2010.

3 Because o he way hey are used in he program, LATs mus be given names wihou spaces. Obviously he char-

acerizaion o he words ha are conained in each o hese caegories is a mater o inerpreaion, as is he choice

o hose words hemselves, which ook place over he course o almos a decade o hand-coding. In general, Wi-

more and Hope use he caegories or LATs o ideniy saisical paterns, hen move rom he caegories o concree

exual insances in order o see how paricular words are uncioning in conex.

4 They discovered, or insance, ha Shakespeares lae romances were disinguished, linguisically, rom hose

ha wen beore hem by word paterns ha allowed speakers o narrae pas acion while highlighing heir own

emoional sance wih respec o hose acions (a process hey called ocalized rerospecion). Specic linguisic

eaures o hese plays were responsible or his eec, or example (1) cerain ypes o subordinaed conjuncion

(a comma, ollowed by he word which) and (2) pas ense verb orms inroduced by a pas ense auxiliary orm o

he verb o be. Comedies and hisories were also shown o be signicanly disinc rom one anoher, wih comedy

possessing a high degree o rs and second person pronouns (classed under he LATs FirsPerson and DirecAd-

dress), a high degree o language expressing uncerainy (he LAT Uncerainy); an absence o nouns and verbs

used o reer o moion, he properies o sensed objecs, and sensed changes in objecs (LATs labeled Moions,

SensePropery, SenseObjec); an absence o rs person plural pronouns (he LAT Inclusive); and an absence owords indicaing social eniies or expecaions ha mus be shared or muually acknowledged (he LAT Common-

Auhoriy).


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3 12 9 13 6 32 29 14 2 7 25 26 2 128 3 6 31 3 4 2 10 8 1 33 4 7 11 5 15 17 20 1 6 22 23 18 1 9 24 3035

Cluster Analysis of Folio Plays

Observations

A Midsummer Nights Dream (3)

Twelh Night (12)

Much Ado About Nothing (9)

Two Gentlemen (13)

Measure for Measure (6)

Othello (32)

Julius Caesar (29)

The Winters Tale (14)

Cymbeline (27)

Antony and Cleopatra (25)

Coriolanus (26)

Henry VIII (21)

Hamlet (28)

Troilus and Cressida (36)

Macbeth (31)

Timon of Athens (34)

Alls Well That Ends Well (2)

Taming of the Shrew (10)

Merry Wives of Windsor (8)

A Midsummer Nights Dream (1)

Romeo and Juliet (33)

Comedy of Errors (4)

Merchant of Venice (7)

The Tempest (11)

Loves Labours Lost (5)

1 Henry IV (15)

2 Henry IV (17)

Henry V (20)

1 Henry VI (16)

King John (22)

Richard II (23)

2 Henry VI (18)

2 Henry VI (19)

Richard III (24)

King Lear (30)

Titus Andronicus (35)

Figure 1: Dendrogram illusraing clusering o Shakespeare plays raed on Docuscopes Language Acion Types

(LATs) produced in 2003. Clusering mehod: complee linkage, Euclidean disances. Noice he presence o

comedies in he rs and hird columns, lae plays and ragedies in he second, and hisories in he ourh and

h. Incorrec classicaions such as Othelloand Loves Labours Lost are discussed on Wimores blog, www.

winedarksea.org.

2. February 2009: Docuscope Recognizes Novelisic Genres

The saring poin o he sudy was a corpus o 250 19h cenury Briish novels rom he

Chadwick-Healey collecion.5 Working wih exising genre bibliographies, Moreti pu

ogeher a sample o 36 exs loosely comparable o he Shakespeare corpus o he rs

Docuscope experimen, which comprised 12 genre ses, divided ino wo groups o 6. The

rs group (ses 1 hrough 6) included 4 gohic novels, 4 hisorical novels, 4 naional ales,

4 indusrial novels, 4 silver-ork novels, and 4 Bildungsromane. O he 6 ses in he second

group, 3 were also presen in he rs (ses 8, 9, and 12: 2 exs each rom indusrial novels,

gohic novels, and Bildungsromane), whereas he oher 3 were no (ses 7, 10, and 11: 2

exs each rom ani-Jacobin, evangelical, and Newgae novels). Docuscopes ask was o

nd and mach he 3 ses rom he second group ha were also presen in he rs.6

5 We limied ourselves o his daabase because mos oher exs available on he web in 2006-8 appeared oo

unreliable or our purposes. Today, our assessmen would be dieren, and a new iniial pool would probably modiy

imporan aspecs o our research.

6 This is he complee lis o he exs: se 1 (gohic novels): A Sicilian Romance, The Old Manor House, The Monk,and Melmoth the Wanderer; se 2 (hisorical novels): Waverley, Ivanhoe, The Entail, and Valperga; se 3 (naional

ales): Castle Rackrent, The Wild Irish Girl, The Absentee, and Marriage; se 4 (indusrial novels): Shirley, Alton

Locke, Hard Times, and North and South; se 5 (silver-ork novels): Glenarvon, Vivian Grey, Pelham, and Mrs Ar-


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To be sure he wouldn unconsciously il his work on Docuscopes resuls in a pre-deer-

mined direcion, Wimore asked o be old nohing abou he exs he was receiving; ile-

pages were removed rom he les (hey oen provide giveaway clues ha are less iner-

esing han he microlinguisic moves ha ge made in he ex), and he lierally walked

ino he meeing wihou knowing how Docuscope had perormed. He was hoping ha

Docuscope would ail a his es, he emailed us a ew days beore he meeing, since Ihave a sake in arguing ha i is maerial consrains on perormance (in plays) ha allows

Docuscope o make inelligible genre discriminaions when i comes o Shakespeare. I

Docuscope urns ou o be good a picking genres o novels as well, I am going o have o

expand my noion o maerial consrain in is relaionship o language pracices. (Laer,

hough, he seemed pleased a how well Docuscope had done.)

Wimore used a variey o measures o mach he genres rom he wo groups. For ex-

ample, he assessed he degree o which mulivariae saisical analysis could produce

acors ha would pry apar pairs rom one anoher a acor being a patern o having

cerain LATs and lacking cerain ohers.7

He also compared each pairing agains a col-lecion o exs called he Frown Corpus (early 1990s American English) o see when hey

boh exhibied idenical elevaed and depressed scores on LATs in comparison wih he

average score rom Frown.8 By combining hese echniques, Wimore came up wih he

ollowing maches: 2:9 (wih 1:9 a close second), 4:8, and 6:12. When he curain was lied,

i urned ou ha Docuscopes only misake consised in mis-maching group 9 (gohic

novels) wih group 2 (hisorical) raher han 1 (gohic): a mix-up mos lierary hisorians

would consider venial, or maybe even ineviable, given he porous borders beween hese

wo genres. (And hen, as Wimore wroe in his presenaion, he correc 1-9 pairing was

indeed a close second.)

mytage, or Female Domination; se 6 (Bildungsromane): Jane Eyre, The History o Pendennis, David Coppereld,

and Daniel Deronda; se 7 (ani-Jacobin novels): Mordaunt, and Adeline Mowbray; se 8 (indusrial novels): The Lie

and Adventures o Michael Armstrong,the Factory Boy, and Mary Barton; se 9 (gohic novels): The Mysteries o

Udolpho, and Zofoya, or, The Moor; se 10 (evangelical novels): Coelebs in Search o a Wie, and Sel-Control; se

11 (Newgae novels): Eugene Aramand Jack Sheppard; se 12 (Bildungsromane): Great Expectationsand Middle-

march.

Rerospecively, his lis is odd and awed in wo opposie ways. Firs, he 36 exs were chosen so as o maxi-

mize variaion wihin each given genre. Alhough quie wrong as a way o selec a sample rom a populaion, his

choice was mean o increase he severiy o he es: Docuscope had o prove i could recognize a genre even

when given a quie disparae bundle o specimens. I his increased he difculy o he enerprise, a second deci-

sion did he exac opposie: insead o giving Wimore 36 exs o be assigned o various generic classes, Moreti

gave him discree groups ha were already subdivided ino genres. This, clearly, made maters much easier, as he

inernal variaion wihin any given genre could be averaged ou by looking a he group as a whole.

These odd, aniheical decisions show how unprepared we were as a group or should we say: as a discipline?

or his ype o research. The idea o a random sample, or insance, never really crossed our minds...

7 One can hink o a acor as a recipe or describing recurring paterns o variaion in a larger collecion o iems. I

each novel is a sack o cards, Docuscope examines all o he decks and couns wha is in hem. Then acor analy-

sis goes hrough all o he conens o each sack and says, whenever I see los o red sixes, I see very ew ours and

ves o any kind. These recipes o presences and absences can hen be esed agains imposed groups o hose

sacks (genres) o see i he acors reliably disinguish iems rom each.

8 Use o a reerence corpus seemed like a good idea, and since Frown had been used o es Docuscope in is

developmen, hose comparisons were buil ino he ool and so available or ready use. I urned ou ha he Frown

comparisons were he mos accurae in predicing lierary criical genre judgmens.


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As he meeing was nearing is end, John Bender asked he hard quesion ha was hang-

ing in he air: Sriking as hese resuls were, did we hink hey had produced new knowl-

edge? The answer, o course, was No: Docuscope had corroboraed wha lierary scholars

already knew or a leas were convinced o i.e. ha cerain exs belonged o he same

class. No new knowledge here. Bu ha human judgmen and unsupervised saisical

analysis would agree on genre classicaion his wasa novely ha had emerged romhe es. Jus as Docuscope had corroboraed exising scholarship, he later had proven

Docuscopes reliabiliy. We waned o know wheher i could replicae is Shakespeare

resuls in unamiliar erriory, and i could; ha rs experimen had no been a uke. A

compuer could classiy lierary exs. And when Wimore in passing, and almos as an

aerhough showed an old, unpublished char rom his Shakespeare sudy, he pos-

sibiliy seemed even richer in implicaions.

3. March 2009: Mos Frequen Words Recognize Novelisic Genres

Docuscope had passed he es. Was i he only program ha could do so? Mathew Jock-

ers, who had been working on auhorship sudies or a while, waned o see wheher he

mehods he had been developing could be applied o genre recogniion as well. In many

ways, genre classicaion is akin o auhorship atribuion. Bu here is one imporan di-

erence. Wih auhorship problems, one atemps o exrac a eaure se ha excludes

conex-sensiive eaures rom he analysis, he consensus being ha a se made up

primarily o requen, or closed-class, word eaures yields he mos accurae resuls. For

genre classicaion, however, one would inuiively assume ha conex words say:

casle in gohic novels would be criical. Ye, Jockerss preliminary resuls suggesed

ha an equally disinc genre signal may be deeced rom a small se o high-requency

eaures.

Using jus 44 word and puncuaion eaures which we evenually ended up calling Mos

Frequen Words, or MFW Jockers was able o classiy he novels in he corpus as well

as Wimore had done wih Docuscope (and is ar more complex eaure se). 9 Using he

dis and hclus uncions in he open-source R10 saisics applicaion, Jockers clus-

ered he exs in he dendrogram o gure 3.1:

9 To derive his eaure se, Jockers lowercased he exs, couned and convered o relaive requencies he vari-

ous eaure ypes, and hen winnowed he eaure se by choosing only hose eaures ha have a mean relaive

requency o .03% or greaer. This resuled in a marix consising o he ollowing 44 eaures (he prex p_ in-

dicaes a puncuaion oken ype insead o a word oken): a, all, and, as, a, be, bu, by, or, rom,

had, have, he, her, him, his, i, in, is, i, me, my, no, o, on, p_apos, p_comma, p_exlam,

p_hyphen, p_period, p_ques, p_quoe, p_semi, said, she, so, ha, he, his, o, was, which,wih, you.

10 htp://www.r-projec.org/


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National

Industrial1

Industrial2

Newgate

Silver-Fork

Bildungsroman1

Bildungsroman2

Evangelical

AntiJacobin

Gothic2

Gothic1

Historical

Plot Created: Feb. 9, 2009

By: mjockers

Novelistic Genres

Using Euclidean Distance with Complete Linkage and 42 Features

Figure 3.1: Cluser Dendrogram o novel genres using Mos Frequen Words (MFW).

Aer Jockers shared his resuls wih Wimore, Wimore suggesed esing his mehodol-

ogy on he Shakespeare corpus. Once again, MFW accuraely clusered he majoriy o

Shakespeares plays ino he ragedies, comedies, hisories, and lae plays o gure

3.2.

Quaniaive Formalism, reads he ile o his aricle. Formalism, because all o us, in one

way or anoher, were ineresed in he ormal convenions o genre; and quaniaive, be-

cause we were looking or more precise ideally, measurable ways o esablish generic

dierences. So, we really waned Docuscope and MFW o do well. Bu so well, no one had

hough possible: no only were genre signals quie srong hey were equally srong a

wholly diferen exual levels: jus as recognizable by Docuscopes mix o grammar and

semanics, as by he handul o uncion words o MFW. The convergence was so clear, i

was almos spooky: i suggesed ha he logic o genre reached a deph ha no one had

imagined, and no one really knew how o explain. The requency o aricles and conjunc-

ions which allowed he idenicaion o Newgae novels or Bildungsromanein ex aer

ex could his really be essenial o he uncioning o a genre? Why?


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Comedy_AllsWell

Comedy_Merchant

Comedy_Measure

Comedy_AsYouComedy_MuchAdo

Comedy_Errors

Comedy_Two Gentlemen

Comedy_TwelhNight

Tragedy_Othello

Comedy_MerryWives

Comedy_Taming

History_JOHN

History_1HENRYVI

History_RICHARDII

History_HENRYV

History_2HENRYIV

History_HENRYIV

Late_HenryVIII

Tragedy_Hamlet

Tragedy_Titus

History_RICHARDIII

History_2HENRYVIIHistory_3HENRYVI

Tragedy_Macbeth

Tragedy_Coriolanus

Late_Cymbeline

Late_Winters

Comedy_LoveLabours

Comedy_Midsummer

Tragedy_Julius

Tragedy_Romeo

Tragedy_Troilus

Late_Tempest

Tragedy_Timon

Tragedy_Antony

Tragedy_Lear

Plot Created: Feb. 4, 2009

By: mjockers

Shakespeare Plays

Using Euclidean Distance with Complete Linkage and 37 Features

Figure 3.2: Dendrogram o Shakespeare Firs Folio plays using Mos Frequen Words wih major clusers highligh-

ed. Here Jockers used he 37 eaures rom he Shakespeare plays ha had a mean relaive requency o greaer han

or equal o .03%. Noe he similariy beween his ree and Docuscopes diagram in g. 1.1, wih he close pairings o

Winters Taleand Cymbeline; 2 Henry VIand 3 Henry VI, and he proximiy oCoriolanuso he Cymbeline-Winters

Talepair.

As soon as school was over, we me again.


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4. June 2009: Forking Pahs

Our nex meeing, a Sanord, began wih Wimore showing a page ha Docuscope had

isolaed as he mos gohic o he enire corpus ha is o say, he one which presened

an exremely high number o ypically gohic eaures (gure 4.1):

Figure 4.1: Docuscope screensho o okens diereniaing he gohic rom several oher genres, drawn rom Ann

Radclie, A Sicilian Romance(1790). These diereniaing bundles o LATs were idenied hrough acor analysis

and ANOVA, wih acors winnowed hrough he Tukey es.

I was an ineresing momen; no jus because he idea o a genres ypical page was un-

usual and inriguing, bu because, as Sarah Allison immediaely poined ou, he gohic o

Docuscope appeared o be quie dieren rom ha o Humanscope (as she called i): i

was no he same gohic wesaw. For us, ha page was gohic because o he subdued er-

ror and he archway, he ruin and apprehension and he limbs ha rembled no because

o he he him his had was sruck he and heard he which caugh Docuscopesatenion. Beween he wo approaches, here seemed o be nohing in common. Or per-

haps, more precisely: nohing in common, in erms o heir unis o analysis;bu everyhing

in common in erms o resuls: wheher via banditi and blood, or utered he and covered

him, Humanscope and Docuscope agreed ha his page belonged o he gohic, and o

no oher genre. And a his poin, he idea ha had rs conusedly crossed our minds a

ew monhs earlier crysallized once and or all: genres, like buildings, possess disincive

eaures a every possible scale o analysis: morar, bricks, and archiecure, as Ryan Heus-

er, pu i: he morar, he grains o sand, o Mos Frequen Words, he bricks o Docuscopes

lexico-grammaical caegories, and he archiecure o hemes and episodes ha readers

recognize. The hree layers were no even overlapping; heir signals were largely disincrom each oher. Dieren as he hree layers were among hemselves, hough, hey were

also dieren rom he corresponding layers o oher genres: he gohic morar oally


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unlike he morar o he naional ale, or he ani-Jacobin novel; he gohic bricks unlike

he bricks used by oher genres, and he same or he more visible archiecural shapes.

We will reurn o he concepual quesions posed by hese observaions owards he end

o his aricle. On ha day in June, hough, somehing else seemed even more inspiring:

he char we briey menioned a he end o secion 2, which displayed all o Shakespeare

plays along wo orhogonal axes (gure 4.2: Shakespeares Plays)

AD

DA

A

A

A

AA

B DD

DA

AD

BB

B

DDB

B D DBCC A

A

D

BA

C

B

Shakespeares Plays

PC2

PC1

1.5

1

0.5

0

-0.5

-1

-1.5

-2

-2 -1 0 1 2

Figure 4.2: Scaterplo marix in which Shakespeares plays are raed on heir rs wo principal componens aer

having been couned by Docuscope and analyzed in erms o aggregaes o LATs. PCA perormed on he covari-ance marix, unscaled daa. Iem key: A = comedy, B = Hisory, C = Lae Plays, D = Tragedies. Noe how he wo

componens place comedies in he upper righ quadran, hisories in he lower le, and several lae plays in he

lower righ (whereas ragedies, or some reason, are dispersed all over he eld).

Wimore and Hope had abandoned he idea o publishing his diagram in a scholarly book

o radiional lierary criicism: hey el i would be more eecive o make heir poin en-

irely wih words. Bu he group saw in he char he promise o an inuiive, synheic view

o he lierary eld, wih each genre placed in relaion o all he ohers. Moreti, in paricular,

was sruck by he similariy beween he char and he principal componens chars ha

Cavalli-Sorza (e.al.), in The Hisory and Geography o Human Genes, had used o racerelaionships among human populaions.11 Could narraive genres be similarly reduced o

wo basic variables? And would he ensuing disribuion correlae wih, say, Bourdieus

11 See L. Luca Cavalli-Sorza, Paolo Menozzi, and Albero Piazza, The History and Geography o Human Genes,

Princeon UP 1994, especially pp. 39. Principal componen analysis is a procedure, similar o acor analysis, which

reduces he variance exising wihin a group o objecs -- in our case, he linguisic-sylisic dierence among lier-

ary exs -- o wo orhogonal axes, called Principal Componen 1 and 2 (PC1 and PC2). Principal Componen 1 is he

combinaion o eaures ha expresses he maximum amoun o variance available o a single componen; Principal

Componen 2 displays a urher increase o variance orhogonally wih respec o PC1. Taken ogeher, PC1 and PC2

are a very economical way o represening as much variance as i is possible on wo dimensions; however, heynever express he oal amoun o variance wihin a sysem, bu, raher, a rade-o beween high inuiive visibiliy

and a (limied) loss o precision.

Shakespeares Plays


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sociological (bu highly subjecive) map o he French lierary eld? Could we acually

map morphology over social disincion?

Wimores char seemed perec or all his. Even he ac ha i wasn perec wih hose

ragedies udging he more orderly paterns o he oher genres seemed a sign o reli-

abiliy, as hisory is isel never perec. So, we decided o repea he atemp wih novelis-

ic genres. I he resuls were good, wo urher developmens would become imaginable.

Firs, he sysem o genres migh urn rom a hodge-podge o unrelaed caegories12 o

a single marix o inerconneced ormal variables. And, second, i migh become pos-

sible o char he Grea Unread he vas, unexplored archive ha lies underneah he

narrow canon o lierary hisory. One could give Docuscope and MFW housands o exs

o unknown generic afliaion, and see where hey would all in he graviaional eld o

beter-known genres. One could envisage generaion-by-generaion maps o he lierary

universe, wih galaxies, supernovae, black holes ...

Wih hese quesions running hrough our heads, we re-deployed he February and March

daa along he lines o gure 4.2. The rs visualizaion, produced by MFW gure 4.3 urned ou o be perecly ambiguous: promising and perplexing in equal measure. There

was cerainly less clariy han in he Shakespeare case; bu, we were charing wice as many

genres, and over a much longer period. And hen, some paterns werevisible: wih a ew

excepions, gohic and hisorical novels lay on he negaive side o principal componen

1 (he le side o he horizonal axis), while he Bildungsromanand indusrial novels were

clearly on is posiive side. For us, his was boh good and bad news. Good, because a

patern is wha one always looks or, in exploraory work. Bu bad, because he patern was

chronological, more han ormal: one generaion, hen a second, more conused one, and

hen a hird. Was principal componen 1 capuring genresignals hen or hisorical ones?

The later seemed more likely, especially given how poorly hose genres ha ourished

in he same years (gohic/hisorical; silver-ork/Newgae; indusrial/Bildungsroman) were

separaed. Hisory seemed deniely sronger han orm.

Bu here were also some daa ha conradiced he hisorical alignmen: in he crowded

cenral secion, which conained genres rom wo dieren generaions, he verical axis

o PC2 which separaed ani-Jacobin and evangelical novels rom Newgae sories

migh be capuring genre signals aer all.13 Would i be possible o isolae such signals,

and magniy hem?

12 Righ now, he very names o novelisic genres are a elling even maddening sign o caegorical conusion

highlighing now he novels medium (he episolary novel), now is conen (hisorical, indusrial), syle (nauralis),

proagonis (picaresque, pasoral), all he way o more or less anciul meaphors (gohic, silver-ork).

13 Then again, wih only wo exs each or hese genres, his could easily be he resul o chance. Or no.


13/29

11

A

A

B

B

B

B

B

E

E

G

G G

G

G

G

H

H

H

H

I

I

I

I

I

N

N

N

N

K

K

S

S

S

S

3 2 1

2

1

PC1

PC2

All Novels Using 51 Features

0

1

2

0 1 2

Figure 4.3: A graphical represenaion o he rs wo principal componens in a PCA analysis o he Mos FrequenWords (MFW). Each leter represens a single ex (A=ani-Jacobin novels, B=Bildungsromane, E=evangelical nov-

els, G=gohic novels, I=indusrial novels, K=Newgae novels, N=naional ales, S=silver-ork novels).

5. June-Sepember 2009: Dead End

From June o Sepember, Wimore and Jockers kep looking or ways o improve he early

resuls o PC analysis. Firs, hey segmened he exs o see wheher smaller unis would

improve diereniaion. All exs were divided ino en equal pars bu he resuls did nochange much. Then, noicing ha he segmens disribuion was oen very uneven as

in gure 5.1, where abou one hird o hem udge an oherwise good separaion beween

gohic and hisorical novels we decided o label all he segmens: Hisorical.8.1 would

indicae he rs segmen o Windsor Casle(which happened o be he eighh hisorical

novel in our corpus); Gohic.1.10 he enh segmen o Vahek(which was he rs gohic

ex), and so on. The overlap among dieren genres migh urn ou o be limied o spe-

cic porions o he exs (beginnings, or endings); i ha were so, and genres became

more disincive more hemselves, as i were a specic momens in he plo, hen one

could ocus on hose momens and magniy heir separaion. I was a plausible, perhaps

even an ingenious hypohesis. Bu no. Some novels were mos disincive early on; oh-ers, lae in he plo; or in he middle; or nowhere in paricular.


14/29

12

+

+

+

+

++

+

+

+

++

++

+

+

+

+

+

++

+

+

+

+

++

+

+++

+++

+

+

+

+

+

+

+

+

+

+

+

+

+

+

+

+

+

++

+

+

++ + +

+

+

+

++

+

+

+

+

++

+

+

++

+

+

+

+

+

+

+

+

+

Group

Gothic

Historical

-6 -5 -4 -3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3 4 5 6

6

5

4

3

2

1

0

-1

-2

-3

-4

-5

-6

PC2

PC1

36 Novels

Figure 5.1: 8000-word segmens o he rs wo groups o 36 novels, raed by Docuscope on rs wo principal

componens. In all PCA analyses below, daa are scaled (i.e., PCA is perormed on he correlaion marix o percen-

age scores).

Nex, we urned o he composiion o our corpus: as explained in oonoe 6, he iniial

collecion o 36 exs ended o exaggerae variaion wihin each genre, making lie unnec-

essarily hard or Docuscope and MFW. We reurned o he Chadwyck-Healey daabase

and added o he iniial corpus all hose exs ha exising bibliographies had assigned o

specic genres; included wo new genres (Jacobin and sensaion novels); and repeaed

all he calculaions on he new corpus o 106 exs.14

Nohing.

14 This second corpus also included a ew exs, mosly rom minor genres, scanned or us by he Sanord librar-ies. Since however he Chadwyck-Healey daabase remained he major source, canonical exs sill predominaed:

o 28 hisorical novels, or insance, 14 were by Scot.

36 Novels


15/29

13

Maybe rying o char eigh decades a once was oo much. We divided he corpus ino

hree generaions;15 hough o course less crowded, he new chars were jus as indeci-

sive. By he end o summer, i was clear ha he resuls were no longer changing.

6. November 2009: Auhors vs. Genres

In November, in he course o a eleconerence which included he ve auhors and a ew

Sanord grad sudens, we looked again a he 3 generaional maps, which now included

all individual exs (gures 6.1-3), and all o a sudden realized how srong he auhor sig-

nal was. Remember, we didn wan auhors; we waned genres. Bu i was impossible no

o noice ha Docuscope and MFW clusered he ormer much beter han he later. Wih

Dickens, Bron, and Elio, or insance who had all writen boh indusrial novels and Bil-

dungsroman he pull o he auhor in gure 6.3 was clearly much sronger han ha o

he genre; and he same was rue or Bulwer-Lytons Las Days o Pompeii, Eugene Aram,and Pelham, closely clusered ogeher in gure 6.2, despie he ac ha hey belonged o

he raher dieren genres o hisorical, Newgae, and silver-ork cion.

PC1

PC2

4

2

0

2

4 2

Genres

Five Genres in PCA Space

Anti-Jacobin

Evangelical

GothicJacobinNational

0 2 4

ShelleySmith

RadcliffeInchbald

Morgan

Edgeworth

Figures 6.1-3: Generaional analysis o original 36 novels as raed by Docuscope on rs wo principal componens.

Noice he proximiy among he exs by Inchbald, Smih, Radclie, Shelley, Morgan, and Edgeworh in 6.1; by Ain-

sworh, Porer, Lyton, Gal, and o course Scot, in 6.2; by Gaskell, Dickens, Bron, Collins and Elio in 6.3.

15 The rs generaion (ca. 1790-1820) included gohic, Jacobin, ani-Jacobin, naional ales, and evangelical nov-els; he second (ca. 1815-1850) hisorical, silver-ork, and Newgae novels; he hird (ca. 1845-1875) indusrial, Bil-

dungsroman, and sensaion novels.


16/29

14

GenresHistorical

Newgate

Silver Fork

Three Genres in PCA Space

PC1

PC2

4

2

0

2

4

4 2 0 2 4

Porter

Lyon

Ainsworth

Sco

Figure 6.2: (see capion above)

GenresBildungsroman

Industrial

Sensation

Three Genres in PCA Space

PC1

PC2

3

2

1

0

1

2

3

2

Collins

Eliot

Bronte

Dickens

Gaskell

0 2 4

Figures 6.2-3: (See capion or 6.1)

Why should auhors be so much more recognizable han genres? Probably, because

Docuscope and MFW are very good a capuring somehing all wriers do, wheher heyknow i or no: using impercepible linguisic paterns ha provide an unmisakable sy-

lisic signaure. Genres also have such sylisic signaures, o course; bu genres have a


17/29

15

narraivesignaure oo heir plo which is a leas as imporan. The episodes ha so

powerully ideniy he Bildungsromanor insance discussions wih old menors and

young riends, alse sars, disappoinmens, he discovery o ones vocaion ... all his

has no equivalen in a sensaion novel; jus as a sensaion novels myseries and murders

would make no sense in an indusrial novel, and so on. So, wha happens when he same

wrier moves rom one genre o anoher when, say, Dickens moves rom he indusrialnovel Hard Timeso he urban muliplo o Litle Dorri, he hisorical Tale o Two Ciies, or

he Bildungsromano Grea Expecaions wha happens is ha his plos change, buhis

syle doesn. Or no as much. The sories o Cokeown, London, or Paris are much more

dieren han he words Dickens uses o narrae hem. His language remains basically he

same.

Why did Docuscope and MFW recognize auhors so well, hen and genres less well? Be-

cause hey had been designed o recognize language, bu no plo.16 They were probably

doing he bes ha could be done in separaing genres on he sole basis o heir language

and syle; bu language and syle are jus no enough o delimi a genre rom anoher. Andaer all, why should hey be? In addressing heir readers, genres use boh syle and plo

(in he nineeenh cenury, probably, more plo han syle): our programs were missing

hal o he srucure, and i made sense ha hey should be only hal successul. Hal suc-

cessul does no mean un-successul. Bu i does sugges ha an analyical ool capable

o quaniy plo is sill missing.17 And as long as ha is he case, he generic disribuion

eeced by Docuscope and MFW was oo random o suppor a good lierary axonomy,

le alone an exploraion o he archive. The Grea Unread would, or he ime being, remain

unread.

7. December 2009: 220 Chars

In December, Allison, Heuser, and Moreti urned o a new se o visualizaions: wo series

o chars ha included all possible pairings among he 11 genres o he enlarged cor-

pus (gohic/Jacobin, gohic/ani-Jacobin, gohic/naional ale, and so on, all he way o

he oher end o he chronological specrum). These chars came in wo orms; he rs

showed he disribuion o wo genres based on MFW (gure 7.1) and Docuscope (g-

ure 7.2). These were our basic ools, allowing us o inuiively grasp wheher wo specic

genres separaed well as gohic and sensaion novels in gures 7.1-2 or no. (MFW andDocuscope, incidenally, urned ou o be equally able or unable, as he case may be o

separae genres rom each oher.)

16 They can cerainly see how acions are described: wih simple or complex senences, sressing subjecive mood

or objecive resuls, surprise or rerospecion. Bu hey can hardly see wha acions consis o: a sorys chrono-

logical (and semanic) chain largely eludes hem.

17 This nding cheered Wimore, since i suggess ha in novelisic represenaion, plo provides an avenue o

generic diereniaion ha has to beless visible o Docuscope because i does no have o be ied o he physical

limis o he medium, whereas Renaissance drama consanly grappling wih he difculy o elling sories wihreal bodies in a ew hours migh have his exra-sylisic avenue oreclosed, leading o more legible (because

maerially consrained) generic syles a he level o he senence.


18/29

16

PC1

PC2

4

2

0

2

4

Genres

Gothic

Sensation

5 0 5

Two Genres in PCA Space

Figure 7.1: Mos Frequen Word scater plo. Here, and in all oher PCA chars, each poin (circle or riangle) on he

plo sands or one segmen (one enh) o a ex.

PC1

PC2 Genres

Gothic

Sensation


2

0

2

4

6

6 4 2 0 2 4

Figure 7.2: Docuscope scater plo.

The second ype o char re-deployed he circles and riangles o gures 7.1-2 add-

ing wo urher eaures. Firs, i agged each segmen, making explici which (par o

which) ex i came rom: he circles in he lower righ corner o gure 7.1, or insance,

urned ou in gure 7.3 o belong o Vahek, hus bringing o ligh he cenraliy

or eccenriciy, as he case may be o each ex wihin is genre (an issue which


19/29

17

may have proound consequences or our knowledge o genre, and which we plan

o invesigae in he uure). And hen, gures 7.3-4 also indicaed which rais o he

wo principal componens conribued o he specic shape o a genres disribu-

ion: which words, or Docuscope Dimensions exered a sronger pull in separaing

gohic rom sensaion novels. So, or insance, he lower righ quadran o gure 7.3

highlighs he denie aricle as an imporan dierenial eaure o he gohic in MFWanalysis (compare wih gure 7.1); in gure 7.4, a similar role is played, in he lower le

quadran, by Narraive VP, Pronouns, and Reporing Evens (compare wih gure

7.2).18

5

5

0

5

PC1

PC2

Goth_01_1_1786_Beckf_VathekTran





Goth_01_5_1786_Beckf_VathekTranGoth_01_6_1786_Beckf_VathekTran




Goth_02_1_1788_Smith_EmmelinethGoth_02_10_1788_Smith_Emmelineth

Goth_02_2_1788_Smith_Emmelineth








Goth_03_1_1790_Radcl_AS

Goth_03_10_1790_Radcl_ASicilianR

Goth_03_2_1790_Radcl_ASicilianRGoth_03_3_1790_Radcl_ASicilianR


Goth_03_5_1790_Radcl_A




Goth_04_1_1791_Radcl_TheRomance










Goth_05_1_1794_Radcl_TheMysteri

Goth_05_10_1794_Radcl_TheMysteriGoth_05_2_1794_Radcl_TheMysteri







Goth_05_9_1794_Radcl_TheMysteriGoth_06_1_1796_Lewis_TheMonkARo

Goth_06_10_1796_Lewis_TheMonkARo









Goth_07_1_1797_Radcl_TheItalian





Goth_07_5_1797_Radcl_TheItalianGoth_07_6_1797_Radcl_TheItalian




Goth_08_1_1799_Godwi_StLeonATal

Goth_08_10_1799_Godwi_StLeonATalGoth_08_2_1799_Godwi_StLeonATal








Goth_09_1_1806_Dacre_ZofloyaorT










Goth_10_1_1810_Shell_ZastrozziAGoth_10_10_1810_Shell_ZastrozziA

Goth_10_2_1810_Shell_ZastrozziA

Goth_10_3_1810_Shell_ZastrozziA Goth_10_4_1810_Shell_ZastrozziA



Goth_10_7_1810_Shell_ZastrozziAGoth_10_8_1810_Shell_ZastrozziA


Goth_11_1_1820_Matur_Melmoththe

Goth_11_10_1820_Matur_MelmoththeGoth_11_2_1820_Matur_Melmoththe








Goth_12_1_1818_Shell_Frankenste



Goth_12_3_1818_Shell_FrankensteGoth_12_4_1818_Shell_Frankenste






Goth_13_1_1793_Smith_TheOldMano


Goth_13_2_1793_Smith_TheOldManoGoth_13_3_1793_Smith_TheOldMano






Sens_01_1_1862_Bradd_LadyAudley







Sens_01_7_1862_Bradd_LadyAudleySens_01_8_1862_Bradd_LadyAudley


Sens_02_1_1868_Colli_TheMoonsto








02_8_1868_Colli_TheMoonsto

_02_9_1868_Colli_TheMoonsto

Sens_03_1_1866_Colli_ArmadaleBy







ns_03_7_1866_Colli_ArmadaleBy



Sens_04_1_1859_Colli_TheWomanin





Sens_04_5_1859_Colli_TheWomaninSens_04_6_1859_Colli_TheWomanin




Sens_05_1_1861_WoodH_EastLynneB




Sens_05_4_1861_WoodH_EastLynneBSens_05_5_1861_WoodH_EastLynneB

_1861_WoodH_EastLynneB




0.3 0.2 0.1 0.0 0.1 0.2 0.3

0.3

0.2

0.1

0.0

0.1

0.2

0.3

a

all

an

andas

at

be

but

by

for

from

hadhave

he

her

him

his

i

if

in

is

it

memy

no

not

of

on

or

p_apos

p_comma

p_exlam

p_hyphen

p_period

p_ques

p_quote

p_semi

said

she

so

that

the

they

this

to

was

were

what

when

which

who

will

with

would

you

your

0 5

Figure 7.3: Mos Frequen Word scaterplo (ligh grey iles) and componen loadings (black).

18 As each o he 55 genre pairings appeared in his double orm, we examined 110 chars produced by Docus-

cope, and 110 produced by MFW. The mapping echnique used in gs. 7.3-4, in which dierenial rais becomevisible wihin he disribuion o he daa hemselves, is described in Mick Al, Exploring Hyperspace: A Non-Math-

ematical Explanation o Multivariate Analysis, McGraw-Hill, London-NY 1990, chaper 4.


20/29

18

Goth_01_10_1786_Beckf_VathekTran.txt





Goth_01_5_1786_Beckf_VathekTran.txtGoth_01_6_1786_Beckf_VathekTran.txt




Goth_02_10_1788_Smith_Emmelineth.txtGoth_02_1_1788_Smith_Emmelineth.txt

Goth_02_2_1788_Smith_Emmelineth.txt







Goth_03_10_1790_Radcl_ASicilianR.txt








Goth_03_8_1790_Radcl_ASicilianR.txtGoth_03_9_1790_Radcl_ASicilianR.txt

Goth_04_10_1791_Radcl_TheRomance.txt



Goth_04_3_1791_Radcl_TheRomance.txtGoth_04_4_1791_Radcl_TheRomance.txt





Goth_04_9_1791_Radcl_TheRomance.txtGoth_05_10_1794_Radcl_TheMysteri.txt

Goth_05_1_1794_Radcl_TheMysteri.txt



Goth_05_4_1794_Radcl_TheMysteri.txtGoth_05_5_1794_Radcl_TheMysteri.txt




Goth_06_10_1796_Lewis_TheMonkARo.txtGoth_06_1_1796_Lewis_TheMonkARo.txtGoth_06_2_1796_Lewis_TheMonkARo.txt

Goth_06_3_1796_Lewis_TheMonkARo.txt


Goth_06_5_1796_Lewis_TheMonkARo.txtGoth_06_6_1796_Lewis_TheMonkARo.txt



Goth_06_9_1796_Lewis_TheMonkARo.txtGoth_07_10_1797_Radcl_TheItalian.txtGoth_07_1_1797_Radcl_TheItalian.txtGoth_07_2_1797_Radcl_TheItalian.txt

Goth_07_3_1797_Radcl_TheItalian.txt



Goth_07_6_1797_Radcl_TheItalian.txtGoth_07_7_1797_Radcl_TheItalian.txt



Goth_08_10_1799_Godwi_StLeonATal.txt


Goth_08_2_1799_Godwi_StLeonATal.txtGoth_08_3_1799_Godwi_StLeonATal.txt







Goth_09_10_1806_Dacre_ZofloyaorT.txt






Goth_09_6_1806_Dacre_ZofloyaorT.txtGoth_09_7_1806_Dacre_ZofloyaorT.txt



Goth_10_10_1810_Shell_ZastrozziA.txt

h_10_1_1810_Shell_ZastrozziA.txt



h_10_4_1810_Shell_ZastrozziA.txt

Goth_10_5_1810_Shell_ZastrozziA.txt1810_Shell_ZastrozziA.txt



_1810_Shell_ZastrozziA.txt

Goth_11_10_1820_Matur_Melmoththe.txt










Goth_12_10_1818_Shell_Frankenste.txtGoth_12_1_1818_Shell_Frankenste.txt

Goth_12_2_1818_Shell_Frankenste.txt






Goth_12_8_1818_Shell_Frankenste.txtGoth_12_9_1818_Shell_Frankenste.txt

Goth_13_10_1793_Smith_TheOldMano.txt










Sens_01_10_1862_Bradd_LadyAudley.txt



Sens_01_3_1862_Bradd_LadyAudley.txtSens_01_4_1862_Bradd_LadyAudley.txt






Sens_02_10_1868_Colli_TheMoonsto.txt








Sens_02_8_1868_Colli_TheMoonsto.txtSens_02_9_1868_Colli_TheMoonsto.txt

Sens_03_10_1866_Colli_ArmadaleBy.txt




Sens_03_4_1866_Colli_ArmadaleBy.txtSens_03_5_1866_Colli_ArmadaleBy.txt





Sens_04_10_1859_Colli_TheWomanin.txt



Sens_04_3_1859_Colli_TheWomanin.txtSens_04_4_1859_Colli_TheWomanin.txt






Sens_05_10_1861_WoodH_EastLynneB.txt




Sens_05_4_1861_WoodH_EastLynneB.txtSens_05_5_1861_WoodH_EastLynneB.txtSens_05_6_1861_WoodH_EastLynneB.txtSens_05_7_1861_WoodH_EastLynneB.txt

Sens_05_8_1861_WoodH_EastLynneB.txtSens_05_9_1861_WoodH_EastLynneB.txt

Asides

Citation

CommunicatorRoles

Comparing

Constructive_Reasoning

ContingentReasoning

CuriosityRaising

Decisiveness

Defining

Descriptive_Features

DirectAddress

Directives

Excepting

Exemplifying

FirstPerson

FollowingUp

FormalQuery

Future

GeneralizingGeneric_firstPerson_Interior

Give_Feedback

Immediacy

Intenseness

Intimacy

MetaDiscourse

Narrative_Time

Narrative_VP

Negative_Emotion

Negative_Relations

NegativeValues

OppositionalReasoning

Past

PersonRoles

Positive_Relations

PositiveValues

Private_Cognitions

Pronouns

Public_Language Questions

Quotations

Reference_Abstract_Words

Reference_Language

Reporting_Change

Reporting_Events

Reporting_Process

Reporting_States

Requests

Specifying

Subjectivity

Take_Responsibility

Positive_Emotion

5

5

0

5

PC1

PC2

0.3 0.2 0.1 0.0 0.1 0.2 0.3

0.3

0.2

0.1

0.0

0.1

0.2

0.3

0 5

Figure 7.4: Docuscope scaterplo (ligh grey iles) and componen loadings (black).

As we sudied our chars, i became clear ha hey resed on wo premises ha were

quie dieren rom hose o curren genre heory: hey never looked a a genre per se, in

isolaion, bu always and only in relaion o anoher genre; and hey were no ineresed

in hose eaures ha could add up o a synheic ideal-ype, bu only in hose ha could

difereniaeone genre rom an anoher. This relaional-dierenial emphasis made or a

very realisic approach, reminiscen o Bourdieus posiion-aking: jus like auhors

or schools, genres engage in a sruggle or recogniion: one could almos eel, no jus

he dierence, bu he conico orms in hose rais ha pulled hem in one direcion or

he oher. And ye, his image o genre was clearly also incomplee, because dierenial

eaures may ell us all we need o know in order o demarcae one orm rom anoher,

and ye very litle abou ha orms inner srucure. I all men in an audience wore pink,

and all women blue, he colours would diereniae hem perecly, and ell us nohing

abou hem. Well reurn o his poin a he end o he aricle.


21/29

19

GenresNational

Silver Fork


PC1

PC2

6

4

2

0

4

5 0 5

2

Figure 7.5: Mos Frequen Word scaterplo o wo genres raed on rs wo principal componens.

GenresNational

Silver Fork


PC1

PC2

6

4

2

0

4

6 4 2 0 2 4

2

Figure 7.6: Docuscope scaterplo o wo genres raed on rs wo principal componens.

Now, one hing ha he chars made clear was he variabiliyo genre signals: quie srong

in gures 7.1-2, or insance, bu raher weak in abou one ourh o he cases like gures

7.5-6, where neiher MFW nor Docuscope managed o exricae naional ales rom silver-

ork novels. Why some genres should be so hard o separae especially in a case likehis, where he dierence, inuiively, ough o be quie vivid was an inriguing quesion;

bu we decided o leave i or anoher sudy, and ocus insead on a group o chars where


22/29

20

he separaion was raher good, and dependen on a recurring se o rais: he pairings o

gohic novels wih he hree ideological genres Jacobin, ani-Jacobin, and evangelical

novels ha were heir shor-lived conemporaries.19 Since he chars were all similar, we

reproduce here only he gohic/Jacobin pairings: gures. 7.7-8, based on MFW, and gures

7.9-10, based on Docuscope and is Dimensions.


PC2

4

2

0

4

2

PC1

5 50

GenresGothic

Jacobin

Figure 7.7: Mos Frequen Word scaterplo o wo genres raed on rs wo principal componens.

To beter undersand he relaionship beween he wo genresand o begin o pu he

gures ino languagewe looked closely a he eaures ha were paricularly eecive

a separaing gohic rom Jacobin along he rs principal componen (PC1: he x-axis in

gures 7.7-10). A principal componen ranks he likelihood o cerain eaures occurring,

so exs are sored according o he eaures hey lack, as well as by he eaures hey have.

19 One o our problems was ha we had auomaed our comparisons, using only he rs wo (and hereore, mos

powerul) principal componens o pull apar he genres. O course, PCA generaes muliple componens and here

are ways o esablishing (or example, he Tukey es) wheher any given componen sors wo groups. Bu wewaned some raw measure o sorabiliy among pairs, which is wha led us o simply prole all o he pairs on heir

rs wo componens and leave oher poenially quie powerul componens aside.


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5

0

5

PC1

PC2

0.3 0.2 0.1 0.0 0.1 0.2 0.3

5 0 5














Goth_02_3_1788_Smith_EmmelinethGoth_02_4_1788_Smith_Emmelineth


Goth_02_6_1788_Smith_EmmelinethGoth_02_7_1788_Smith_Emmelineth Goth_02_8_1788_Smith_Emmelineth


th_03_1_1790_Radcl_ASicilianR




Goth_03_4_1790_Radcl_ASicilianR_5_1790_Radcl_ASicilianR







Goth_04_3_1791_Radcl_TheRomanceGoth_04_4_1791_Radcl_TheRomance







Goth_05_10_1794_Radcl_TheMysteriGoth_05_2_1794_Radcl_TheMysteri










Goth_06_2_1796_Lewis_TheMonkARoGoth_06_3_1796_Lewis_TheMonkARo










Goth_07_3_1797_Radcl_TheItalianGoth_07_4_1797_Radcl_TheItalian










Goth_08_4_1799_Godwi_StLeonATalGoth_08_5_1799_Godwi_StLeonATal






























Goth_11_5_1820_Matur_MelmoththeGoth_11_6_1820_Matur_Melmoththe











Goth_12_7_1818_Shell_FrankensteGoth_12_8_1818_Shell_FrankensteGoth_12_9_1818_Shell_Frankenste










Jaco_01_1_1796_BageR_Hermsprong

Jaco_01_10_1796_BageR_HermsprongJaco_01_2_1796_BageR_Hermsprong




Jaco_01_6_1796_BageR_H




Jaco_02_1_1794_Godwi_ThingsAsTh







Jaco_02_7_1794_Godwi_ThingsAsThJaco_02_8_1794_Godwi_ThingsAsTh


Jaco_03_1_1796_HaysM_MemoirsofE







Jaco_03_7_1796_HaysM_MemoirsofEJaco_03_8_1796_HaysM_MemoirsofE


Jaco_04_1_1792_Holcr_AnnaS

Jaco_04_10_1792_Holcr_AnnaStIves



Jaco_04_4_1792_Holcr_Ann




Jaco_04_8_1792_Holcr_AnnaStIvesJaco_04_9_1792_Holcr_AnnaStIves

Jaco_05_1_1794_Holcr_TheAdventuJaco_05_10_1794_Holcr_TheAdventuJaco_05_2_1794_Holcr_TheAdventu

Jaco_05_3_1794_Holcr_TheAdventu



Jaco_05_6_1794_Holcr_TheAdventuJaco_05_7_1794_Holcr_TheAdventu



Jaco_06_1_1796_Inchb_NatureandA










Jaco_07_1_1791_Inchb_ASimpleSto







Jaco_07_7_1791_Inchb_ASimpleStoJaco_07_8_1791_Inchb_ASimpleStoJaco_07_9_1791_Inchb_ASimpleSto

Jaco_08_1_1799_HaysM_TheVictimo










Jaco_09_1_1798_Wolls_TheWrongso










a

all

an

and

as

at

be

but

by

for

from

had

have

heher

him

his

i

if

in

is

it

me

my

nonot

of

on

or

p_apos

p_comma

p_exlam

p_hyphen

p_period

p_ques

p_quote

p_semi

said

she

so

thatthe

they

this

to

was

were

what

when

which

who

will

with

would

you

your

0.3

0.2

0.1

0.0

0.1

0.2

0.3

Figure 7.8: Mos Frequen Word scaterplo wih iles (ligh grey) and componen loadings (black).

Roughly speaking, we ound ha he gohic novel averages less alk and more acion han

he Jacobin. Words and phrases ha characerize gohic exs show a marked narraive

inclinaion: pas ense and pronouns; spaial preposiions; and words marked by Docus-

cope as Narraive Time (or example, whils, when he, as he). See in MFW, on he

le side o gure 7.8: was, had, who, she, he, her, his, hey, he ubiquious he, and he

large group o locaive preposiions rom, on, in, a; in Docuscope, on he le side o g-

ure 7.10, see Narraive VP (or example, heard he, reached he, commanded he) and

Pronouns. Markers associaed wih oral discourse, on he oher hand, end no o occur in

gohic novels: a oregrounding o he addressee (you, your), quesions, polemical markers

(bu, no), and verbs ineced in he presen, uure and condiional. In MFW, noe on he

righhand side o gure 7.8 he cluser o you, p_ques [?], bu, i, no, is, will, and would;

in Docuscope, on he righ o gure 7.10, see Quesions, Opposiional Reasoning (no,

bu, however), and, jus below i, Direcives (should, mus, you will soon). Though

Jacobin exs generally ack in his direcion, hey are more scatered han he gohic ones.Wha separaes he genres here seems o be, no so much he absence o narraive in

Jacobin exs, bu he presence o alk, somehing like an argumenaive syle.


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PC2

6

4

2

0

2

6

PC1

4 26 0 2 4 6

GenresGothic

Jacobin

Figure 7.9: Docuscope scaterplo o wo genres raed on rs wo principal componens.


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5

0

5

PC1

PC2

0.3 0.2 0.1 0.0 0.1 0.2 0.3

0.3

0.2

0.1

0.0

0.1

0

.2

0.3

5 0 5

























Goth_03_8_1790_Radcl_ASicilianR.txtGoth_03_9_1790_Radcl_ASicilianR.txt















Goth_05_4_1794_Radcl_TheMysteri.txtGoth_05_5_1794_Radcl_TheMysteri.txtGoth_05_6_1794_Radcl_TheMysteri.txt
























Goth_08_5_1799_Godwi_StLeonATalGoth_08_6_1799_Godwi_StLeonATal.txt

Goth_08_7_1799_Godwi_StLeonATal.txtGoth_08_8_1799_Godwi_StLeonATal.txt

























Goth_11_5_1820_Matur_Melmoththe.txtGoth_11_6_1820_Matur_Melmoththe.txt

Goth_11_7_1820_Matur_Melmoththe.txtGoth_11_8_1820_Matur_Melmoththe.txt














Goth_13_2_1793_Smith_TheOldMano.txtGoth_13_3_1793_Smith_TheOldMano.txt







Jaco_01_10_1796_BageR_Hermsprong.txtJaco_01_1_1796_BageR_Hermsprong.txt

Jaco_01_2_1796_BageR_Hermsprong.txt






Jaco_02_10_1794_Godwi_ThingsAsTh.txt




Jaco_02_4_1794_Godwi_ThingsAsTh.txtJaco_02_5_1794_Godwi_ThingsAsTh.txt


Jaco_02_7_1794_Godwi_ThingsAsTh.txtJaco_02_8_1794_Godwi_ThingsAsTh.txt


Jaco_03_10_1796_HaysM_MemoirsofE.txt

Jaco_03_1_1796_HaysM_MemoirsofE.txtJaco_03_2_1796_HaysM_MemoirsofE.txt








Jaco_04_10_1792_Holcr_AnnaStIves.txt Jaco_04_1_1792_Holcr_AnnaStIv

Jaco_04_2_1792_Holcr_AnnaStIves.txt


Jaco_04_4_1792_Holcr_A



Jaco_04_7_1792_Holcr_AnnaStIv



Jaco_05_10_1794_Holcr_TheAdventu.txt

Jaco_05_1_1794_Holcr_TheAdventu.txtJaco_05_2_1794_Holcr_TheAdventu.txt




Jaco_05_6_1794_Holcr_TheAdventu.txtJaco_05_7_1794_Holcr_TheAdventu.txt



Jaco_06_10_1796_Inchb_NatureandA.txt


Jaco_06_2_1796_Inchb_NatureandA.txtJaco_06_3_1796_Inchb_NatureandA.txt







Jaco_07_10_1791_Inchb_ASimpleSto.txt

Jaco_07_1_1791_Inchb_ASimpleSto.txtJaco_07_2_1791_Inchb_ASimpleSto.txt








Jaco_08_10_1799_HaysM_TheVictimo.txt










Jaco_09_10_1798_Wolls_TheWrongso.txt




Jaco_09_4_1798_Wolls_TheWrongso.txtJaco_09_5_1798_Wolls_TheWrongso.txt


Jaco_09_7_1798_Wolls_TheWrongso.txtJaco_09_8_1798_Wolls_TheWrongso.txt


Asides

Citation

CommunicatorRoles

Comparing

ConstructiveReasoning

ContingentReasoning

CuriosityRaising

Decisiveness

Defining

scriptive_Features

DirectAddress

Directives

Excepting

Exemplifying

FirstPerson_Interior

F ollowing_Up

Formal_Query

FutureGeneralizing

Generic_First_Person

GiveFeedback

Immediacy

Intenseness

Intimacy

MetaDiscourse

Narrative_Timearrative_VP

Negative_Emotion

Negative_Relations

NegativeValues

OppositionalReasoning

Past

PersonRoles

P ositive_Emotion

Positive_Relations

Positive_Values

Private_Cognitions

Pronouns Public_Language

Questions

Quotations

Reference_Abstract_Words

Reference_Language

Reporting_Change

Reporting_Ev

Figure 7.10: Docuscope scaterplo wih iles (ligh grey) and componen loadings (black).

Such, hen, were he raw daa ha our analyic echniques had placed in ron o us.

Could hey become good inerpreive quesions? We ried. Noicing, or insance, he

high requency o he condiional in he ideological genres where, indeed, possibiliy

is imporan Jockers and Moreti compiled a lis o he (more or less) 13,000 senences

ha included would; looked a he associaed pronouns, adjecives, and adverbs; a he

ypes o verbs involved; a he negaive orms, he pas ense ... A ew resuls sood ou:

would+never occurred wice as oen in he gloomy evangelical novels han elsewhere,

or insance; and he impersonal pronoun i was 50% more requen in Jacobin and ani-

Jacobin novels ull o absrac discussions o principle han anywhere else. Boh nd-

ings made perec sense. Bu were hey also surprising? They cerainly corroboraed and

enriched exising knowledge o he genres in quesion. Did hey also changei?


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24

8. March 2010: Experimens, Exploraions, Hypoheses

In March, we me or one las rerospecive glance a a year o work. Why had we urned o

Docuscope and MFW in he rs place? Because we were looking or an explici, quani-

able way o assign exs o his or ha genre. I was, in par a leas, a mater o atribuion.

Atribuion ... To race every piece o is real creaor, wries Carlo Ginzburg,

we should no depend () on he mos conspicuous characerisics o a pain-

ing, which are he easies o imiae: eyes raised owards he heavens in he

gures o Perugino, Leonardos smiles, and so on. We should examine, insead,

he mos rivial deails ha would have been inuenced leas by he manner-

isms o he ariss school: earlobes, ngernails, shapes o ngers and o oes.

Earlobes, ngernails ... I is in hese involunary signs, Ginzburg coninues,

in he maerial ries a calligrapher migh call hem ourishes compa-

rable o avorie words and phrases which mos people inroduce ino heir

speaking and wriing uninenionally, oen wihou realizing i, ha Morelli

recognized he sures clue o an ariss ideniy.20

Involunary signs: his is ceranly wha MFW and LATs are. Bu are hey jusha? Because,

clearly, here is a problem wih earlobes and ngernails: good as hey migh be a ideniy-

ing he auhor o a paining, hey are worhless a explaining is meaning. In ac, hey are

good a he one becausehey are bad a he oher: is only because ries have no sruc-

ural uncion, ha auhors le go and wrie uninenionally, wihou realizing i hereby

beraying hemselves. I hose words were imporan, hey would be more careul.

There is somehing paradoxical in hese rais ha classiy so well, and explain so litle.Especially so in our case: because, aer all, MFW and LATs were in a leas one respec

he very opposie o earlobes and ngernails: insead o being rare and peripheral deails,

hey were so requen as o be almos ubiquious. And how could such pervasive rais ell

us nohing abou he srucure o genre? I was possible, o course, ha i was all our aul;

ha, alhough we had managed o isolae he daa, and were probably he rs o see

hem, we jus didn know how o make sense o hem. Possible; and we are ready o place

our daa a he disposal o ohers, who may obain beter resuls.

Bu here is also a simpler explanaion: namely, ha hese eaures which are so eec-

ive a diereniaing genres, and so enwined wih heir overall exure hese eaurescanno oer new insighs ino srucure, because hey aren independen rais, bu mere

consequences o higher-order choices. Do you wan o wrie a sory where each and every

room may be ull o surprises? Then locaive preposiions, aricles and verbs in he pas

ense are bound o ollow. They are he efecso he chosen narraive srucure. And, yes,

once Docuscope and MFW oreground hem, making us ully aware o heir presence, our

knowledge is analyically enriched: we see he space o he gohic, or he link beween

acion verbs and objecs (highlighed by he requency o aricles), wih much greaer

clariy. Bu, or he ime being, he gain seems o be comparaive more han qualiaive:

greaerclariy, raher han clariy o a dieren ype.

20 Carlo Ginzburg, Clues, in Clues, Myths, and the Historical Method, Hopkins UP 1989, pp. 96-7, 118.


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We sared wih an experimen: esing he classiying power o Docuscope in a new and

conrolled seting. The experimen hen urned ino an exploraion: Docuscope and MFW,

charing he eld o novelisic genres, and heir inner composiion. Exploraory Daa

Analysis, as John Tukey has called i: deecive work, ocusing on clues ha lead o new

quesions, and a broader undersanding o he daa. Saisical ndings, said Heuser, made

us realize ha genres are icebergs: wih a visible porion oaing above he waer, and amuch larger par hidden below, and exending o unknown dephs. Realizing ha hese

dephs exis; ha hey can be sysemaically explored; and ha hey may lead o a muli-di-

mensional reconcepualizaion o genre: such, we hink, are solid ndings o our research.

Now, more exploraions are on he horizon: he swich rom unsupervised o supervised

echniques, or insance; or he explici inclusion o semanic daa, which we have so ar

mosly avoided so as o ocus more sricly on he ormal properies o genres. And hen, a

he end o i all, he grea challenge o experimenal work: he consrucion o hypoheses

and models capable o explaining he daa. This sudy is a sep in ha direcion.


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26

Abou Us

The Sanord Lierary Lab, direced by Mathew Jockers and Franco Moreti, discusses, de-

signs, and pursues lierary research o a digial and quaniaive naure. The Lab is open o

all sudens and aculy a Sanord - and, on a more ad hoc basis, o sudens and aculy

rom oher insiuions.

We envisage a variey o projecs, ranging rom disseraion chapers o courses, individ-

ual or group publicaions, conerence papers and panels, and even shor books. Ideally,

research will ake he orm o a genuine experimen, and exend over a period o one or

wo years. On our websie (lilab.sanord.edu) you will nd a lis o our presen aciviies,

mos o which gaher ogeher several projecs, and are open o urher collaboraion. We

plan o iniiae wo more experimens in 2010-11, and add anoher wo in 2011-12.

A he Lab, all research is collaboraive (even hough some oucomes may end up having

a single auhor). We hold regular group meeings o evaluae he progress o a specic

experimen, he saus o exising hypoheses, and uure research developmens. (I iner-esed in hese meeings, please conac Jockers or Moreti: as a rule, visiors are welcome.)

Occasionally, we will have public presenaions o our research, which will be announced

on our websie under Evens.


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January 2011

AB

literary lab pamphlet 1

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