9/3/2023 0 Comments Textual analysisBut beyond this, literary studies have traditionally been built on the use of close reading to examine a text through a detailed analysis of a piece that looks for specific information such as word use, repetition, and literary devices. Without the researcher, the mined textual date cannot be understood. Text analysis creates new possibilities for academic fields as well as a number of other areas, but it cannot be separated from human interpretation. As such, disciplines are in a state of constant evolution, and the introduction of new technologies is just another step in the development of the field. Literary studies for instance has shifted a number of times throughout its existence as a reputable field of study - moving from a ranking system meant to determine what should be included in the canon to its contemporary form which focuses on the study, evaluation, and interpretation of a much broader range of texts. As with any paradigm shift, there is often a fear from within the field that changes will cause a loss of disciplinary purity.Īnd yet, if we take a step back and look more broadly at the history of a discipline it becomes apparent that there are constant changes that adjust the scope of the field. Thus, text analysis brings forth anxieties surrounding the potential obsolescence of the human in the future of an academic field. The implementation of new technologies into a field is often met with a certain amount of resistance. ![]() Recent technological developments allow researchers to move beyond human ability to look at collections of text larger than would otherwise be possible. Disciplinary Distress – Text Analysis Literary Studies ![]() As such, the tools work in tandem with their human user. Without close reading though, the data we come up with is relatively meaningless. As such, these tools working in tandem allow for analysis that could not previously be done - looking for patterns across large bodies of work and placing them in conversation with the information embedded in smaller selections.Īlthough readers would feasibly be able to read the entirety of the Jane Austen corpus, it is unlikely that they would be able to map patterns in the same way that a text analysis software is able to. ![]() With distant reading, patterns can be located that would not otherwise be detected by the human reader, but without support from close reading these patterns lack context. By contrast, corpus files can contain large amounts of text beyond what a human could feasibly analyze - a form of study called distant reading. The work done by humans is often referred to as close reading, which describes the way that a small selection of text is carefully analyzed at the textual level -allowing researchers to make broad speculations pertaining to the meaning of the piece. When studying text, humans do this work all the time, but computers can do the work faster and on a larger scale. Interacting with text through digital tools has allowed researchers to “find words in a string”, look for “surrounding words, search for complex patterns, count things, compare vocabulary between characters, visualize texts” ( Rockwell 211). This work in particular was a form of information technology that indexed concordance files for ease of access -allowing humanists to use online files on their personal computers. The concordance functioned as means to find patterns from within a text or set of texts: a textual corpus. ![]() Text analysis programs emerged from tools initially designed to help create print concordances. As such, Rockwell asserts that the digital concordance file is “a hybrid text created by the choices of the user from the original text” which allows for a different manner of engaging with the information ( 213). Rockwell argues that the model of computer assisted text analysis runs off a “view of what a text is and how we should use it” ( 210). More recently, the ways of studying text has shifted towards digital methods of analysis as the primary mode of study ( Rockwell 209).Computerized methods of text analysis were some of the first digital tools adopted and widely used in the humanities. As an example of a canonical ‘early’ digitized text analysis project, Roberto Busa’s Index Thomisticus attempted to analyze the complete works of Thomas Aquinas, during the 1940s (“ A Brief History”). The goal of text analysis is to extract information about semantic or grammatical data between words. Text analysis has a long history of human labour.
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