Comments on: Gothic Novels, Chronologically woodchipped

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By: Data Analysis Group Post - Technoromanticism

Data Analysis Group Post - Technoromanticism — Fri, 16 Jan 2015 22:11:20 +0000

[...] would take them. Likewise, another subgroup chose texts based around their overarching topic of chronology and were initially able to accommodate the wide-ranging results they encountered. However, when [...]

By: Clifford Hichar

Clifford Hichar — Wed, 02 May 2012 15:54:40 +0000

Your study is really quite fascinating. I wonder if, based on prevalence of certain words and themes during certain periods you could then draw conclusions about what was happening in the world outside of literature as well? We’ve seen in so many instances how writers turned to fiction to express their concerns with society (I think of Caleb Williams and the conversation it enters into about the French Revolution and concerns of the period, also Dracula and the fears that book expressed about the aristocracy, immigrants, women, etc). It would be fascinating if in some way you could use the woodchipper to look not just at trends in literature, but see how literature enters into the larger concerns of a people at a particular moment of history. Perhaps even see what concerns radiate not just in one genre, but across multiple genres at a particular period? All of what you have found is quite exciting.

By: Neil

Neil — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 02:23:29 +0000

Very interesting hypothesis, Allie. Larger data samples would be crucial to make the case. Also, being able to run a large dataset of randomly selected British novels through Woodchipper to see what topics emerged would also be useful in seeing just how generically specific the topics you’re finding actually are.

By: Neil

Neil — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 02:18:48 +0000

I would have expected Caleb Williams to show strong affinity to the Gothic, so this comes as no surprise.

By: Neil

Neil — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 02:17:39 +0000

“Sensibility” might be a good name for this topic, Allie.

By: Allison Wyss

Allison Wyss — Sun, 15 Apr 2012 01:31:02 +0000

Thank you.

I want to show you what that image looks like with the layers in another order, but I’m not sure how to put an image in a reply. Hmm… Well, Caleb does match up pretty well to the other two in that instance. (The order of those layers, by the way, is a rather frustrating aspect of woodchipper. To change it, you have to go back to the start, empty your list and add them in a different order.)

Honestly, I didn’t put a lot of thought into Caleb being an outlier. We labeled it Gothic at the start of the project and it fit the time frame I wanted. But I did run it, just now, against some of the texts we’ve been calling “most gothic” and it fits pretty well. And in my earlier runs of many texts at once, to establish how this whole thing was going to work, Caleb did not stand out in any way that I noticed.

I haven’t done very much in the way of testing the Gothic novels against a control group because we’ve had some delays in getting our control texts loaded. We probably started with too small a number, and then had some bad luck with the texts.

By: Allison Wyss

Allison Wyss — Sun, 15 Apr 2012 00:31:32 +0000

A mix, really. I consulted Travis’ titles and drilled down to see what the actual paragraphs seemed to be about. I called that weird category “Good Conduct,” which is awkward, I know.

By: Amanda Visconti

Amanda Visconti — Sat, 14 Apr 2012 21:54:56 +0000

Great, thorough post–this was fun to read. I appreciated how thoughtful you were about what you expected to see and what you actually saw–you did a great job of covering your thought process from conceiving the experiment to running it to considering its theoretical implications.
I’d be interested in hearing more about your definition of the Gothic–Caleb Williams feels like an outlier in the group, but from the order in which the layers are displayed in your image, I couldn’t tell how similar it was to the other two texts from that period. I also wonder whether you tested these against any control groups of non-Gothic novels from the same time period (and what you found if you did).

By: Charity Hancock

Charity Hancock — Sat, 14 Apr 2012 19:43:36 +0000

Hey Allie – Did you get your category labels from the 100 topics Travis sent, or did you ascribe them yourself? For instance, what did you call that “Felt, Made, Conduct, Received, Heart” category?