Presentation given by Belaid Moa (Compute Canada) and Jana Millar Usiskin (Modernist Versions Project, Maker Lab in the Humanities) at the University of Victoria, April 2014. Addressed new methods for analyzing modernist literature as Big Data.

1. Topic Modeling
for Literary
AnalysisBIG MODERNISM
Belaid Moa, PhD
Computing Specialist, Compute Canada
Jana Millar Usiskin
PhD Student, Department of English

2. THE
CHALLENGE

3. 1. Defining
2. Aggregating
3. Preprocessing4. Analyzing
5. Postprocessing
THE
PROCESS

4. If text analysis is to
participate in literary critical
endeavor in some manner
beyond fact-checking, it must
endeavor to assist the critic
in the unfolding of
interpretive possibilities.
[. . .] The evidence we seek is
not definitive, but suggestive
of grander arguments and
schemes.
Stephen Ramsay
Interpretive
Possibilities
DEFINING

5. The Data Set
AGGREGATING

6. metadata (xml) text (txt)
PREPROCESSING
CLEANING TEXT

7. PREPROCESSING
PREPPING FOR MAXIMUM INTERPRETATION

8.  Learn from seen (large)
data
 Patterns, Properties, etc.
 Perform well on unseen
(large) data
 Predict
 Decide
 Classify
 “Torture data” just right
What is
Machine
Learning?
ANALYZING

9. As simple as
possible but
not simpler.
MACHINE
LEARNING
In
I2
I1
thm
ori
Alg

10. Machine
Learning
PROCESS
Choose the methods
Feed the data
Take decisions,
make predictions
Toolbox
Define space of
possible models
Learn structure and
the parameters of
the model
Take decisions,
make predictions
Modeling

11. Categorization
MACHINE
LEARNING
• Input
• Some output
• Learn a model
• Prediction, Decision
Supervised
• Input
• Learn patterns using a model
• Prediction, Decision
Unsupervised
• Input
• Grading of some output
• Prediction, Decision
Reinforcement
Learning
Labeled data
Unlabeled data
Rewarded data

12. Bayesian
Learning
• Probabilistic models
• Learn parameters
based on Bayesian
rule/integration
LDA
• Generative model
• Hidden/latent variables
• Word, Document, Topic
triplet
Probabilistic/
Bayesian
Learning
UNSUPERVISED
LEARNING

13. Topic Modeling
BAYESIAN
LEARNING
 Find hidden (thematic)
patterns/topics in documents
 Produce labels according to
the patterns
 Understand, organize, search
and summarize the collection
of documents

14. Simple Idea!
PROCESS
Topic
1
Topic
3
Topic
2
Mrs Dalloway
Ulysses
house
Time
man
Child
Day

15. Documents as a
mixture of
topics
LDA
Document 1
Document 2

16. Topics as a
mixture of
words
LDA
Topic 1
arabs 0.023
army 0.016
railway 0.0146
day 0.0144
….
Topic 2
God 0.020
Father 0.0160
soul 0.0135
Sin 0.0080
Priest 0.00798
….
Topic 3
time 0.0129
father 0.0107
Sister 0.00677
room 0.00676
House 0.0066
….

17. Topics as
distributions on
words
LDA
Topic 1
Topic 2
Topic 3

18. Generative
Process
LDA
For each topic Tp,
a) Choose a distribution pTp over
words
For each novel Li:
a) Choose a distribution pLi over
K topics
b) for each word in Li:
i. Draw one of the K topics, Tj,
according to pLi
ii. Draw one of the V words
according to pTj

21. LDA Novels
LDA
children room room room people house house room
afternoon doctor afternoon children room house
children house doctor girl afternoon house night doctor
room children afternoon children room house afternoon
children
Novel 1
room afternoon doctor children house afternoon night
children children children children room house
afternoon people doctor house house doctor room
doctor afternoon doctor room room house doctor
afternoon children room
Novel 2

22. Graphical
Model
LDA
N
D
K

23. For Big
Modernism
LDA
LDA
(mallet train-topics …)
Corpus
Filter
Topic & word
Distributions
Exploration

24. PROCESSING
STREAMLINED SCRIPT

25. Though the machine does a
very good job in identifying
the topics latent in a corpus,
the machine does a
comparatively poor job when
it comes to auto-identifying
which of the harvest topics
are the most interpretable by
human beings.
- Matt Jockers, Macroanalysis
Interpretation
POST-
PROCESSING

26. 3
SENSORY
EXPERIENCE
OF
TEMPORALITY
time felt day
looked knew
work face
hand night
18
TIME
EMBODIED
eyes face life
time white
dark round
hand head
26
INHABITING
SPACES
men people
began room
house talk
suddenly end
years
TOPIC INDEX
WEIGHT
Modernist Novels

28. Time
Embodied
Inhabiting
Everyday
Spaces
POST-
PROCESSING
Labeling Most
Modernist
Topics
Sensory
Experience
of
Temporality

29. Sensory
Experience of
Temporality
POST-
PROCESSING

30. Sensory
Experience of
Temporality
POST-
PROCESSING

31. Inhabiting
Spaces
POST-
PROCESSING

32. Inhabiting
Spaces
POST-
PROCESSING

33. Time Embodied
POST-
PROCESSING

34. Time Embodied
POST-
PROCESSING

35. POST-PROCESSING
DISTRIBUTION TABLE

36.  Heart of Darkness >>> Lord Jim
 0.052
 Heart of Darkness >>> Secret Agent
 0.809
 Lord Jim >>> Secret Agent
 0.729
 Mrs. Dalloway >>> The Waves
 0.586
 The Great Gatsby >>> Tender is the Night
 0.132
 Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas >>> Three Lives
 6.993
POST-PROCESSING
AUTHOR DISTANCES

37. Top 10 Generic
Modernist
Novels
POST-
PROCESSING
The Ambassadors
Howard’s End
Twilight Sleep
The Captive
The Good Soldier
The Awakening
Lord Jim
The Waves
Heart of Darkness

38. Top 10 Generic
Modernist
Novels
POST-
PROCESSING
Mrs. Dalloway
The Ambassadors
Howard’s End
Twilight Sleep
The Captive
The Good Soldier
The Awakening
Lord Jim
The Waves
Heart of Darkness

39. Top 10 Unique
Modernist
Novels
POST-
PROCESSING
Seven Pillars
The Trial
Babbitt
The Autobiography of Alice B.
Toklas
Three Lives
Time Regained
Nightwood
1984
Passage to India

40. Top 10 Unique
Modernist
Novels
POST-
PROCESSING
Ulysses
Seven Pillars
The Trial
Babbitt
The Autobiography of Alice B.
Toklas
Three Lives
Time Regained
Nightwood
1984
Passage to India

41. Clustering
MACHINE
LEARNING


42. Affinity
Propagation
CLUSTERING

43. Affinity
Propagation
CLUSTERING

44. Affinity
Propagation
CLUSTERING
Exemplar

46. Cluster 1, exemplar Tender is the Night:
The Awakening (Chopin), Heart of Darkness (Conrad), Lord Jim (Conrad), The Secret
Agent (Conrad), The Great Gatsby (Fitzgerald), Tender is the Night (Fitzgerald), The
Trial (Kafka), Babbitt (S. Lewis), Tarr (W. Lewis), 1984 (Orwell), Burmese Days
(Orwell), The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas (Stein), Twilight Sleep (Wharton)
Cluster 2, exemplar Ulysses:
Nightwood (Barnes), A Passage to India (Forster), Tess of the D’Urbervilles (Hardy),
The Dubliners (Joyce), Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (Joyce), Ulysses (Joyce)
Cluster 3, exemplar Seven Pillars of Wisdom:
Seven Pillars of Wisdom (Lawrence)
Cluster 4, exemplar Time Regained:
The Ambassadors (James), The Captive (Proust), Time Regained (Proust)
Cluster 5, exemplar Mrs. Dalloway:
The Good Soldier (Ford), Howard’s End (Forster), Sons and Lovers (Lawrence),
Women in Love (Lawrence), Of Human Bondage (Maugham), Three Lives (Stein), The
Picture of Dorian Gray (Wilde), Mrs. Dalloway (Woolf), The Waves (Woolf)
POST-PROCESSING
MODERNISM SUB-CLUSTERS

47. Cluster 1, exemplar Tender is the Night:
The Awakening (Chopin), Heart of Darkness (Conrad), Lord Jim (Conrad), The Secret
Agent (Conrad), The Great Gatsby (Fitzgerald), Tender is the Night (Fitzgerald), The
Trial (Kafka), Babbitt (S. Lewis), Tarr (W. Lewis), 1984 (Orwell), Burmese Days
(Orwell), The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas (Stein), Twilight Sleep (Wharton)
Cluster 2, exemplar Ulysses:
Nightwood (Barnes), A Passage to India (Forster), Tess of the D’Urbervilles (Hardy),
The Dubliners (Joyce), Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (Joyce), Ulysses (Joyce)
Cluster 3, exemplar Seven Pillars of Wisdom:
Seven Pillars of Wisdom (Lawrence)
Cluster 4, exemplar Time Regained:
The Ambassadors (James), The Captive (Proust), Time Regained (Proust)
Cluster 5, exemplar Mrs. Dalloway:
The Good Soldier (Ford), Howard’s End (Forster), Sons and Lovers (Lawrence),
Women in Love (Lawrence), Of Human Bondage (Maugham), Three Lives (Stein), The
Picture of Dorian Gray (Wilde), Mrs. Dalloway (Woolf), The Waves (Woolf)
POST-PROCESSING
MODERNISM SUB-CLUSTERS

48. Affinity
Propagation on
Modernism
POST-
PROCESSING
Fitzgerald
Tender is the
Night
The Great Gatsby
Chopin
The
Awakening
Conrad
Heart of
Darkness
Lord Jim
The Secret
Agent
Lewis
Tarr
Kafka
The Trial
Orwell
1984
Burmese Days
Stein
The
Autobiography
of Alice B
Wharton
Twilight
Sleep
Joyce
Ulysses
Dubliners
Portrait of the Artist
Hardy
Tess of the
D’Urbervilles
Barnes
Nightwood
Forster
A Passage to
India
Lawrence
The Seven
Pillars of
Wisdom

49. Affinity
Propagation on
Modernism
POST-
PROCESSING
Woolf
Mrs. Dalloway
The Waves
Ford
The Good
Soldier
Forster
Howard’s
End
Lawrence
Sons and
Lovers
Women in
Love
Stein
Three Lives
Wilde
The Picture
of Dorian
Gray
Proust
Time Regained
The Captive
James
The
Ambassadors

50. Fitzgerald
Tender is the
Night
The Great Gatsby
Chopin
The
Awakening
Conrad
H. of D.
Lord Jim
Secret Agent
Ford
The Good
Soldier
Forster
Howard’s End
James
The
Ambassadors
Kafka
The Trial
Lawrence
The Seven
Pillars
Lawrence
Sons and
Lovers
Women in
Love
Lewis
Tarr
Lewis
Babbitt
Maugham
Of Human
Bondage
Orwell
1984
Burmese
Days
Proust
Time
Regained
The Captive
Stein
The Autobio
of Alice
Three Lives
Wharton
Twilight Sleep
Joyce
Ulysses
Dubliners
Portrait of the
Artist
Barnes
Nightwood
Hardy
Tess of the
D’Urbervilles
Forster
A Passage
to India
Wilde
The Picture
of Dorian
Gray
Woolf
Mrs.
Dalloway
The Waves

51. 10
GIFTS and
SOCIETY
give felt time
father mind
people speak
present poor
26
EMBODIED
TIME
time face hand
eyes day looked
place house
turned
17
FAMILY
RELATIONS
sister family
mother friend
manner feelings
time morning
father
27
BODIES IN
SPACE
night half round
room eye eyes
sat heard head
TOPIC INDEX
WEIGHT
19th-Century Novels

52. Sensory
Experience of
Temporality
POST-
PROCESSING
Family
Relations
Embodied
Time
Gifts and
Social
Relations

53. Cluster 1, exemplar Emma (Austen):
Emma (Austen), Pride and Prejudice (Austen), Persuasion (Austen)
Cluster 2, exemplar Villette (Brontë):
Jane Eyre (Brontë), Villette (Brontë)
Cluster 3, exemplar A Tale of Two Cities (Dickens):
A Tale of Two Cities (Dickens)
Cluster 4, exemplar Great Expectations (Dickens):
Great Expectations (Dickens), Oliver Twist (Dickens), North and South (Gaskell), The
Portrait of a Lady (James), The Turn of the Screw (James)
Cluster 5, exemplar Middlemarch (Eliot):
Middlemarch (Eliot), Silas Marner (Eliot), The Mill on the Floss (Eliot), The Return of
the Native (Eliot)
POST-PROCESSING
MODERNISM SUB-CLUSTERS

54. 47
TIME
EMBODIED
face eyes time
hand head
night house
turned looked
18
WOMEN, TIME,
AND SPACE
time day mind
room woman
life years
place heard
8
SENSORY
INTERPRETATION
felt sense fact
question face
life present
eyes light
TOPICS
WEIGHT
Modernism and 19th-Century Novels

55. Cluster 1, exemplar Tender is the Night:
 Nightwood, The Awakening, Heart of Darkness, Lord Jim, The Great Gatsby, Tender is
the Night, Babbitt, Tarr, 1984, The Captive, Time Regained, The Autobiography of Alice
B. Toklas, Twilight Sleep
Cluster 2, exemplar A Passage to India:
 The Good Soldier, A Passage to India, The Trial, Burmese Days
Cluster 3, exemplar Ulysses:
 The Secret Agent, Dubliners, Portrait of the Artist, Ulysses, North and South
Cluster 4, exemplar Seven Pillars of Wisdom:
 Seven Pillars of Wisdom
Cluster 5, exemplar Mrs. Dalloway:
 Howard’s End, Women in Love, Sons and Lovers, Of Human Bondage, Three Lives, The
Picture of Dorian Gray, Mrs. Dalloway, The Waves
Cluster 6, exemplar Emma:
 Emma, Persuasion, Pride and Prejudice
Cluster 7, exemplar Great Expectations:
 A Tale of Two Cities, Great Expectations, Oliver Twist
Cluster 8, exemplar Silas Marner:
 Tess of the D’Urbervilles, Middlemarch, Silas Marner, The Mill on the Floss, Return of
the Native
Cluster 9, exemplar The Turn of the Screw:
 The Ambassadors, The Turn of the Screw, Jane Eyre, Villette, The Portrait of a Lady,
The Turn of the Screw
POST-PROCESSING
MODERNISM AND 19th-CENTURY SUB-CLUSTERS

56. Cluster 1, exemplar Tender is the Night:
 Nightwood, The Awakening, Heart of Darkness, Lord Jim, The Great Gatsby, Tender is
the Night, Babbitt, Tarr, 1984, The Captive, Time Regained, The Autobiography of Alice
B. Toklas, Twilight Sleep
Cluster 2, exemplar A Passage to India:
 The Good Soldier, A Passage to India, The Trial, Burmese Days
Cluster 3, exemplar Ulysses:
 The Secret Agent, Dubliners, Portrait of the Artist, Ulysses, North and South
Cluster 4, exemplar Seven Pillars of Wisdom:
 Seven Pillars of Wisdom
Cluster 5, exemplar Mrs. Dalloway:
 Howard’s End, Women in Love, Sons and Lovers, Of Human Bondage, Three Lives, The
Picture of Dorian Gray, Mrs. Dalloway, The Waves
Cluster 6, exemplar Emma:
 Emma, Persuasion, Pride and Prejudice
Cluster 7, exemplar Great Expectations:
 A Tale of Two Cities, Great Expectations, Oliver Twist
Cluster 8, exemplar Silas Marner:
 Tess of the D’Urbervilles, Middlemarch, Silas Marner, The Mill on the Floss, Return of
the Native
Cluster 9, exemplar The Turn of the Screw:
 The Ambassadors, The Turn of the Screw, Jane Eyre, Villette, The Portrait of a Lady,
The Turn of the Screw
POST-PROCESSING
MODERNISM AND 19th-CENTURY SUB-CLUSTERS

57. Cluster 1, exemplar Tender is the Night:
The Awakening, The Great Gatsby, The Good Soldier, Howard’s End, A Passage
to India, The Ambassadors, The Trial, Seven Pillars of Wisdom, Women in Love,
Babbitt, Tarr, Of Human Bondage, 1984, Burmese Days, The Captive, Time
Regained, The Autobiography of Alice B., Three Lives, Emma, Persuasion, Pride
and Prejudice, Middlemarch, The Mill on the Floss, The Portrait of a Lady, The
Turn of the Screw
Cluster 2, exemplar Ulysses:
Nightwood, Heart of Darkness, Lord Jim, The Secret Agent, Tess of the
D’Urbervilles, Dubliners, Portrait of the Artist, Sons and Lovers, Twilight Sleep,
The Picture of Dorian Gray, Mrs. Dalloway, The Waves, Jane Eyre, Villette, A Tale
of Two Cities, Great Expectations, Oliver Twist, Silas Marner, North and South,
Return of the Native
POST-PROCESSING
MODERNISM AND 19th-CENTURY SUB-CLUSTERS

58. Cluster 1, exemplar Tender is the Night:
The Awakening, The Great Gatsby, The Good Soldier, Howard’s End, A Passage
to India, The Ambassadors, The Trial, Seven Pillars of Wisdom, Women in Love,
Babbitt, Tarr, Of Human Bondage, 1984, Burmese Days, The Captive, Time
Regained, The Autobiography of Alice B., Three Lives, Emma, Persuasion, Pride
and Prejudice, Middlemarch, The Mill on the Floss, The Portrait of a Lady, The
Turn of the Screw
Cluster 2, exemplar Ulysses:
Nightwood, Heart of Darkness, Lord Jim, The Secret Agent, Tess of the
D’Urbervilles, Dubliners, Portrait of the Artist, Sons and Lovers, Twilight Sleep,
The Picture of Dorian Gray, Mrs. Dalloway, The Waves, Jane Eyre, Villette, A Tale
of Two Cities, Great Expectations, Oliver Twist, Silas Marner, North and South,
Return of the Native
POST-PROCESSING
MODERNISM AND 19th-CENTURY SUB-CLUSTERS

59. Mystery Novels
INFERENCE
Given the topics,
compute the
topic distribution
of a new novels
Infer the closest
Novels (KL distance)
Example: Given X.txt, Y.txt, and Z.txt novels,
find the closest novel

60. Profiling the
texts
INFERENCE
Mystery
Texts
X
Y
Z
Mystery Texts, Topic Inference

61. X
Ulysses-0.776
Nightwood–1.098
Mrs. Dalloway–1.107
Portrait-1.251
The Waves-1.358
Mrs. Dalloway–0.8
The Waves-0.925
Ulysses–0.934
Nightwood–1.032
Heart of Darkness–1.237
Y
The Secret Agent-0.47
Tarr–0.686
Lord Jim–0.85
Heart of Darkness–0.908
Ulysses–1.153
The Secret Agent–0.385
Lord Jim–0.7
Tarr–0.741
Heart of Darkness–0.762
Turn of the Screw–1.164
Z
Tender is the Night–1.375
Dubliners-1.566
Babbitt-1.588
The Trial-1.6
Tarr-1.663
The Trial-1.046
Babbitt-1.908
Sons and Lovers-1.918
Tarr-2.116
Tender is the Night-2.142
INFERENCE
Similarity to
other novels

62. Modernist Versions Project
Compute Canada
Maker Lab in the Humanities
Contact info:
Belaid Moa
bmoa@uvic.ca
Jana Millar Usiskin
janamu@uvic.ca
@jana_mu
THANK YOU