Computer-Assisted Analysis of Modern Greek Poetry
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COMPUTER-ASSISTED ANALYSIS OF MODERN GREEK POETRY by Maria Charitou Student number: 11103701 A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Media Studies: New Media and Digital Culture at The University of Amsterdam June 2016 Supervisor: Prof. Dr. K.H. (Karina) van Dalen-Oskam Second Reader: Prof. Dr. R.A. Rogers ©2016 Maria Charitou All Rights Reserved E-mail: [email protected] To Vasiliki, for her encouragement and support. 2 Acknowledgements I would like to express my gratitude to my supervisor Karina van Dalen-Oskam, Professor of Computational Literary Studies at the University of Amsterdam for the useful comments, remarks and engagement through the learning process of this master thesis. I would also like to acknowledge Richard Rogers, Professor of New Media and Digital Culture at the University of Amsterdam as the second reader of this thesis, and I am gratefully indebted for his very valuable comments on this thesis. Furthermore, I would like to thank George K. Mikros, Professor of Computational and Quantitative Linguistics at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, for his advice and suggestions. Overall, I would like to thank my sister Vasiliki, who has supported me throughout entire process, both by keeping me harmonious and helping me putting pieces together. 3 Table of Contents 1. Introduction ............................................................................................................................6 1.1 Digital world and the Digital Humanities .........................................................................6 1.2 Digital Literary Studies ..................................................................................................13 1.3 Literary Text Analysis: Towards a Definition of ‘Style’................................................15 1.4 Computational Analysis of Poetry ..................................................................................17 2. Research Question ................................................................................................................19 3. Methodology ........................................................................................................................21 3.1 Corpus of texts ................................................................................................................21 3.1.1 Corpus preparation ..................................................................................................25 3.1.2 Modern Greek Language .........................................................................................26 3.1.3 Poetic Generation: Definition and Periodization .....................................................27 3.2 Software tools .................................................................................................................29 3.3 Stylistic Analysis: Style Markers and Text Collection ...................................................31 4. Findings ................................................................................................................................36 4.1 Most Frequent Words (MFW) ........................................................................................38 4.1.1 Results on the whole corpus of texts .......................................................................38 4.1.2 Word-Frequency Results by Generations ................................................................42 4.1.2.1 Conclusion ............................................................................................................51 4.1.3 Results by Gender ....................................................................................................52 4.2 Conclusion ......................................................................................................................62 5. Literary Names .....................................................................................................................63 5.1 Introduction ....................................................................................................................63 5.2 Names in Modern Greek Poetry .....................................................................................65 5.2.1 Methodology and Findings ......................................................................................65 5.3 Discussion: Function of Names ......................................................................................69 6. Conclusion ............................................................................................................................73 6.1 Aim .................................................................................................................................73 6.2 Suggestion for Future Research ......................................................................................74 Bibliography .............................................................................................................................76 4 Abstract The (over)abundance of information and the ability to have access on it, the digital revolution and the disposal of digital tools we tend to use nowadays in our daily life for academic, for research or other purposes, seem to mark a new era for Science, and especially for the Humanities. From ‘Humanities Computing’ to ‘e-Humanities’ and then to ‘Digital humanities’, this new interdisciplinary field of studies promises to provide new possibilities regarding the production of knowledge. Especially, knowledge is guided through a new form of science, the so called ‘data-driven’ science, once machines and algorithms are being used increasingly in order to study (literary) texts. This essay examines the possibilities given by the use of software tools and investigates how quantitative analysis can contribute significantly to the study of poetic texts, radically altering the way on which Humanities are being understood and practiced. Therefore, it mentions a number of significant debates on the field showing its vigorous effect, and makes a particular reference on literary studies and the challenge they face by the implementation of algorithms. Focusing on Stylometry and Onomastic studies, this study aims to analyze Modern Greek poetry with the use of digital Stylistic tools and to investigate how Proper Names operate in poetry. Overall, it aims to explore the role of computers for the analysis of Modern Greek poetry. Keywords Digital Humanities, Digital Literary Studies, Modern Greek Poetry, Textual Analysis, Computational Stylistics, Word-Frequency, Names. 5 1. Introduction 1.1 Digital world and the Digital Humanities Digital technology and the current deluge of data are shifting, amongst other things (i.e. access to information), the way research is being conducted (Kitchin 2014, 128- 148). Not only because research is increasingly being conducted through the use of digital technology, but also because with the rise of digital tools many traditional methodologies seem to have changed or tend to do so. Thus, digital technology spreads to a variety of epistemological fields and challenges traditional disciplines from the (Social) Sciences to Humanities, creating what is being called ‘Digital Humanities’. Digital Humanities is an “emerging” interdisciplinary field of studies that intersects Computer Science and Humanities and examines the way Humanities deal with (digital) technology, (new) media and digital methods (Svensson 2010; Arthur and Bode 2014). The change of the term, from ‘Humanities computing’ to ‘Digital Humanities’, signifies the progressive development of the field as it “emerged from the low-prestige status of a support service into a genuinely intellectual endeavor with its own professional practices, rigorous standards, and exciting theoretical explorations” (Hayles 2012b, 43). Particularly, digital tools such as text mining, machine learning, data mining, data visualization, information retrieval, etc. merge with traditional Humanities practices, such as Hermeneutics, close reading, philology, archiving, critical textual or visual analysis, text analysis etc. The availability of tools, algorithms, databases, interfaces, software etc. suggests a different analysis from the traditional one, “focused on the finding of patterns, dynamics, and relationships in data” (Rieder and Röhle 2012, 70), and demonstrate the shift from micro to macro analysis (Jockers 2013). Subsequently, this ‘digital diffusion’ places in a new frame the production of knowledge and has both epistemological and ontological repercussions: not only because digital tools, platforms, (computational) techniques, and (new) media have significant consequences on the production and dissemination of knowledge in the 6 Humanities, but also because they “represent new possibilities to study human interaction and imagination on a very large scale” (Rieder and Röhle 2012, 68). More precisely, it appears that digital technology affects the way we think and how we think about thinking, regarding the fact that nowadays we tend to think “through, with, and alongside media” (Hayles 2012a, 1). Moreover, it has implications on how we conceive of universities and of learning processes -by the application of new pedagogical practices in classrooms and new research methods. But whereas the rise of Digital Humanities is said to have brought a “new lustre to a tired field” (Kitchin 2014, 141), they have been criticized of leaving behind old research methods –such as hermeneutics,