Quantifying & Visualizing Literature

While the thought of extracting quantitative data from works of art has never been something I've actively pondered doing, doing so has opened up an entire new realm of analysis. By utilizing tools, such as the Voyant tools, certain trends and repetitive qualities within genres and authors begin to reveal themselves. Not only do data tools show trends, but it also gives you a multitude of visuals that show the ways the words within the text flow together as the body of work progresses. One of the most interesting patterns I've noticed in my story is that while the story is called "The Cat" (written by Edgar Allan Poe), the term 'cat' is not the most frequently used term, showing up 10 times. The most frequently used word is 'house', which was used 12 times in the text. The trends within the text are able to project an image of what the story may be about, and those who haven't spent the time reading the text would still be able to grasp what the primary purpose of the text is. I think these tools are able to be paired with traditional research and analysis processes, and by doing so, it gives visual learners an outlet to see the trends within the text without having to read the same passage repeatedly.


I'm still actively compiling more data and content for my analysis, and these tools have been able to generate a multitude of avenues in which I could choose to analyze Poe's work from.

Comments

  1. Jordan RobichaudOctober 3, 2022 at 9:27 PM

    Hi there! I think it's really interesting that the word "house" is used more than the word "cat" when "cat" of course appears in the title, and it really shows how data analysis can be useful in learning quick facts like that about a text, especially in that I can personally say I would 100% assume a cat would be the main focus of the story. I also like how you mentioned the importance of these tools to visual learners.

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