Guest lecture on digital humanities methods, text mining, DH project The Riddle of Literary Quality and my own research on the relationship between perception of author gender and literary quality. Also, a second part with practical analysis: the students get to play with AntConc.

1. Date: 25-09-2018
Dr. Corina Koolen
Calculating literary quality?
Guest lecture Tilburg University

2. First part: me, talking
• Postdoc at Huygens Institute for the history of
the Netherlands (now part of KNAW
Humanities Cluster) in The Riddle of Literary
Quality
• Thesis: Reading beyond the female
• Next year: Dutch version for the larger public

3. Social media
• Blog: www.corinakoolen.nl
• Twitter: @corinakoolen
• Instagram: corneliawko (warning: bucketloads
of knitting posts)
• Slideshare:
https://www.slideshare.net/CorinaKoolen/
Get this presentation here:

5. Digital humanities: text mining
• Authorship recognition
• Stylistic differences: genre, period, author
gender, etc.
• Topic modeling
• Psychological research
• Sentiment analysis
• Etc.

10. Relationship scores – text
Which features?
Features: characteristics that one can
measure computationally

11. Features - textual
• Sentence length
• Bigrams
• Number of clichés
• Etc.

12. Features - extra-textual
• Genre
• Gender
• Translation yes/no

13. Correlation between text and average rating

14. Correlation between text and average rating + some labels

15. Reading beyond the female

16. Opinions on female authors (1)

17. Female authors score significantly lower
Literary quality:
• Overall
• Romantic novels lowest average overall
• Literary genre
(Suspense only differed on overall quality)

18. ‘Literary’ novels
5.9 6.3 6.66.0

19. Respondent motivation De Moor
“[H]et verhaal was matig, taalkundig gezien was
het niet goed. Absoluut niet boeiend. Het stijgt
niet uit boven een bouquetreeks roman.
onbegrijpelijk dat dit boek een prijs gewonnen
heeft.”
“[T]he story was mediocre, linguistically it was
not good. Not compelling at all. It does not
rise above the Mills and Boon novel.
Incomprehensible that this book has won a
prize.”

20. ‘Women’s novels’ – in eyes of respond.
• The Help - Kathryn Stockett (literary)
• The Ice Princess - Camilla Lackberg (suspense)
• Eat, Pray, Love – Elizabeth Gilbert (literary)
• Remember me? – Sophie Kinsella (romantic)
‘Too feminine’
• Fidali’s Way - George Mastras

21. Respondent motivation Gilbert
“Wat een zeikwijf zeg, die Elizabeth.”
“What a whining bitch, that Elizabeth.”

22. Opinions on female authors (2)

23. Dutch literary world at large

24. Literary awards

25. Text analysis: computers

26. Writing style differences

27. Topic modelling

28. Text analysis: patterns

29. Case: women, body, appearance
“It would not be an exaggeration to say that the
leitmotif of the unruly body (…) that needs
constant disciplining is constitutive of the
chick lit novel.” -- Gill and Herdieckerhoff
(2006)

30. Topic: descriptions of physical
appearance

31. Second part: play time!

32. AntConc
• Software by Laurence Anthony
• Free download
• User friendly
• Useful for exploration
• Necessary: files in txt-format

33. Practical session
• How we prepared the data
• Example of an analysis
• Then: start playing! (see handout)

35. Bron: Forbes.com

36. Notepad++
• Free
• Lots of documentation online
• Useful for cleaning of a few texts
• More options than Notepad or the likes
• Necessary: files in txt-format
• Downside: not for Mac OS

37. AntConc: Respondent comments
Question: Could you motivate your score on
literary quality for this novel? (Either high or low)

39. Keyword analysis AntConc
- Difference author f/m?
- Difference respondent f/m?

40. All respondents, high and low scores
(n.b. only nouns)
Keywords auteur vrouw Keywords auteur man
chicklit, schrijfster, diepgang,
romannetje, boek, kinderboek,
vakantie, streekroman, adult,
dochter, doktersroman
schrijver, stijl, taal, vorm,
auteur, taalgebruik, opbouw,
verteller, wijze, werkelijkheid,
journalistiek, hoofd, structuur,
humor, mate, originaliteit,
compositie, opzet

41. Keywords auteur vrouw Keywords auteur man
schrijfster, kind, dochter,
excuses, gevolgen, jongetje,
milieu, oordelen, tweeling,
stukje, jeugd, gevoelens, deel,
aanslag, acties
schrijver, stijl, taalgebruik,
kant, werkelijkheid, woord,
structuur, schrijvers, keuze,
opzet, vorm, genot, land,
proza, perspectieven
Female respondents only, high scores
(n.b. only nouns)

42. Grab your print-outs

43. The End