Franco Moretti's "Graphs, Maps, Trees: Abstract Models for a Literary History" (review) (original) (raw)
Related papers
Graphs and Comparative Literary Studies
2021
Mathematical methods in literary studies have been drawing the philologists’ attention for more than a century now, especially after the success of statistical methods in stylometry was widely recognized. A few scholars demonstrated their interest in mathematical methods, which is mainly traced in the works employing mathematical and physical metaphors. Such words as ‘entropy’, ‘continuum’, ‘spatial and temporal dimensions’ are not uncommon in literary criticism. ‘The statistical turn’ was followed by the ‘digital turn’, i.e. by Digital Humanities in literary studies exemplified primarily in the works of Franco Moretti (Moretti, 2007) and his followers. While the success of statistical approach in stylometry or the growing application of Moretti’s ‘distant reading’ (Moretti, 2013) is apparent, other mathematical methods have been shadowed. Even so, over the past decades scholars of literature have been trying to broaden the spectrum. One of the examples is the study of love dynamics...
Close & Distant reading in Gérard Genette and Franco Moretti: Mining and Visualizing Data
2019
What would Gérard Genette and Franco Moretti talk about if they met? Did they ever meet? Searching in the “Arts & Humanities Citation Index” database and trying to find connections between the two literary theorists, the results are discouraging. However, an attempt remains to be made. Various hints and traces found scattered in articles on digital humanities, tacitly imply that it is worth taking this step. It is the relationship between close reading and distant reading that is present in both Genette and Moretti that leads us towards this enquiry.
Distant Reading, Computational Criticism, and Social Critique: An Interview with Franco Moretti
Le foucauldien , 2016
In this exclusively published piece Franco Moretti elaborates on his biography and intellectual influences the development of Distant Reading—his most controversial concept—and the question what literary history might contribute to a social critique of the present. The interview was conducted by Ruben Hackler and Guido Kirsten in Zurich in mid-March 2016 following a workshop with the renowned literary scholar at the center "History of Knowledge." The contribution is part of the foucaultblog series on "Distant Reading and Discourse Analysis."
In Macroanalysis (2013) Matthew Jockers created a graph depicting similarity relationships between 3300 19th century Anglophone novels, each characterized by 600 features. The graph is derived from a database that contains no date information. When projected onto two-dimensions and visualized, however, the graph has a gradient that is aligned with time. I 1) interpret the graph as a trace of the activity of complex dynamical system (19th century Anglophone novels), 2) conclude that the system has an inherent temporal direction, and 3) contrast it with systems that evolve through random or through cyclic trajectories. I suggest that as this system evolves the range of design possibilities for novels becomes larger, allowing them to encompass a greater range of human experience. I conclude by asserting that evolving literary culture is itself a force in history.
THE PLANET OF LITERATURE: FRANCO MORETTI'S NEO-PERSPECTIVIST METHOD
The Planet of Literature: Franco Moretti's Neo-perspectivist Method. This study focuses on the revolutionary method of quantitative analysis, as it is employed within the field of literary studies by the literary historian and th e o r i s t F r an c o M o r e t ti. (i s a pp r o ac h t o th e e v ol u ti o n o f l i te r ary genres is pervaded by both a rational view upon literature and a certain postmodern perspectivism. Through such an integrative analysis of the different systems and networks of literature, literary history can become a scholarly discipline that is finally freed from its internal complexes. REZUMAT. Planeta literaturii: Metoda neoperspectivistă a lui Franco Moretti. Studiul se focalizează asupra metodei revoluţionare a analizei cantitative, aşa cum este ea exploatată în interiorul câmpului studiilor literare de către istoricul şi teoreticianul literar Franco Moretti. Abordarea pe care el o are asupra evoluţiei genurilor literare este impregnată atât de o viziune raţionalistă asupra literaturii, cât şi de un perspectivism postmodern. Printr-o astfel de analiză integratoare a diferitelor sisteme şi reţele ale literaturii, istoria literară poate deveni o disciplină academică eliberată, în fine, de complexele ei intrinseci.
Distant Reading or Not Reading: Moretti & Frye
Moretti's distant reading is not so much departure in literary criticism as it is an application of digital technology to an ancient mode of reading (or not) works under the rubric of some universal principle -- such as archetypes or universally distributed psychic patterns.