Should We Teach Literature Students How To Analyze Texts Algorithmically?

When the U.K. newspaper the Sunday Times outed J.K. Rowling as the author of detective novel The Cuckoo's Calling earlier this year, computer scientists were among the first people called in. Although the novel was published under the pen name Robert Galbraith, two computational scholars––including Duquesne University's Patrick Juola––were tasked with confirming or denying whether the novel belonged to the Harry Potter author, or one of three other possible writers. That Juola succeeded (his conclusions were later confirmed by Rowling herself) speaks volume about the the potential that algorithms and computer science can have, even with application to a field as notoriously subjective as literature. Which raises an interesting question: Can we use software to help us think about literature? Reverse Engineering J.K. Rowling To explore that question, we should first look at how the Juola cracked Rowling's writing style. To begin the process, Juola loaded 1,000–word samples of The Cuckoo's Calling in to his self–designed Java Graphical Authorship Attribution Program (JGAAP), along with several other texts, including The Casual Vacancy, Rowling's first post–Harry Potter novel. A freely available Java–based, modular program for textual analysis, categorization, and authorship attribution, JGAAP analyzed the texts on four different variables: word–length distribution, the use of common words like "the" and "of," recurring–word pairings, and the distribution of "character... Continue reading at 'Fast Company'

[ Fast Company | 2013-09-03 00:00:00 UTC ]
News tagged with: #casual vacancy #harry potter

Other Publishing stories related to: 'Should We Teach Literature Students How To Analyze Texts Algorithmically?'


Should We Teach Literature Students How To Analyze Texts Algorithmically?

When the U.K. newspaper the Sunday Times outed J.K. Rowling as the author of detective novel The Cuckoo's Calling earlier this year, computer scientists were among the first people called in. Although the novel was published under the pen name Robert Galbraith, two computational... Continue reading at Fast Company

[ Fast Company | 2013-09-03 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #casual vacancy #harry potter


World Literature Today Announces 2023 Student Translation Prize Winners

World Literature Today Announces 2023 Student Translation Prize Winners News and Events [email protected] Tue, 05/30/2023 - 09:42 Katie Kassam and Vala Thorodds, winners of the 2023 Student Translation PrizesWorld Literature Today, the University... Continue reading at World Literature Today

[ World Literature Today | 2023-05-30 14:42:03 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #south london #national anthem #united kingdom #white review #faculty sponsor #penguin book #science fiction #book review


World Literature Today Announces 2021 Student Translation Prize Winners

News and Events Mariah Rust and Xin Xu recently were named the recipients of the fourth annual translation prize for students sponsored by World Literature Today at the University of Oklahoma. Consistent with World Literature Today’s commitment to... Continue reading at World Literature Today

[ World Literature Today | 2021-05-20 16:07:11 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #publishing world #international studies #phone call #faculty sponsor #french literature #book review


Trying to Teach English Literature in the Wake of Mao’s Cultural Revolution

My assignment was to offer a survey course on the history of English literature in northeast China. I was paired with a young American teacher sponsored by the United Nations who was to teach phonetics and oral expression. We taught six days a week, and every Wednesday afternoon our students... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2021-01-15 09:49:40 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #cultural revolution #united nations #wednesday afternoon #english literature


World Literature Today Announces 2020 Student Translation Prize Winners

News and Events The Editors of WLT From left to right, prose winner Jamie Lauer and writer Pía Barros, poetry winner Russell Karrick, poet Lucía Estrada. Jamie Lauer and Russell Karrick recently were named as the recipients of the third annual... Continue reading at World Literature Today

[ World Literature Today | 2020-05-18 13:29:17 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #special place #recent collection #creative writing #social injustices #time period #book review


BEYOND THE BARD: Exploring the Teaching of Contemporary British Literature in Global Higher Education

Guest Blogger: Prof Katy Shaw, University of Northumbria, Vice-Chair of BACLS – the British Association of Literary Studies – and executive committee member of University English, the national subject association. In recent years there has been a rapid rise in the teaching of English Literature... Continue reading at British Council global

[ British Council global | 2020-05-18 09:30:54 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #influence policy #senior fellow #long-standing relationship #book award #english literature #british literature


Cambridge condemns abuse of student following literature curriculum coverage

Cambridge University has confirmed it is reviewing how it teaches postcolonial literature following a petition from one of its students calling for the curriculum to include “post-colonial” or “BME authors”, to avoid “perpetuating institutional racism”. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2017-10-26 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #cambridge university


World Literature Today Announces Finalists for 2024 Neustadt International Prize for Literature

World Literature Today Announces Finalists for 2024 Neustadt International Prize for Literature News and Events [email protected] Wed, 05/24/2023 - 13:17 Top row (left to right): Angie Cruz, Ananda Devi (credit: J.F. Paga (Grasset)), Jenny... Continue reading at World Literature Today

[ World Literature Today | 2023-05-24 18:17:59 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #international prizes #equally eligible #living writer #significant body #edwidge danticat #silver replica #eagle feather #generous endowment #neustadt prizes #visit neustadtprize #czesław miłosz #literary award #literary festival


Sheikh Zayed Award Names Longlists: Literature, Children’s Literature, Young Authors

The first three categories' longlists have been released in the 17th edition of the Sheikh Zayed Book Award, based in Abu Dhabi. The post Sheikh Zayed Award Names Longlists: Literature, Children’s Literature, Young Authors appeared first on Publishing Perspectives. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives

[ Publishing Perspectives | 2022-11-10 20:55:04 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #young authors #17th edition #abu dhabi #zayed book


Awards: Sheikh Zayed Shortlists: Literature, Young Author, Children’s Literature

The nine shortlisted tiles in the Literature, Young Author, and Children’s Literature categories come from six Arab nations. By Porter Anderson, Editor-in-Chief | @Porter_Anderson More Category Shortlists Will Follow he Sheikh Zayed Book Award—organized and administered by the Abu Dhabi Arabic... Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives

[ Publishing Perspectives | 2022-03-18 03:09:10 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #literature appeared #post awards #young author #arab nations #porter anderson #editor-in-chief @porter_anderson #zayed book


World Literature Today Announces Finalists for 2022 Neustadt International Prize for Literature

News and Events Left column (top to bottom): Boris Boubacar Diop, Ludmilla Petrushevskaya; Middle left column: Michális Ganás, Cristina Rivera Garza, Jean-Pierre Balpe;  Middle right column: Natalie Diaz, Naomi Shihab Nye, Micheline Aharonian... Continue reading at World Literature Today

[ World Literature Today | 2021-06-15 14:25:01 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #neustadt prize #international prizes #equally eligible #nsk prize #living writer #significant body #edwidge danticat #silver replica #eagle feather #prize certificate #generous endowment #neustadt prizes #visit neustadtprize #literary award #literary festival


Sheikh Zayed Book Award Shortlists: Literature, Children’s Literature, and Young Author

The three shortlists announced today comprise nine titles selected from a total 39 longlisted works. Winners are to be named in May. The post Sheikh Zayed Book Award Shortlists: Literature, Children’s Literature, and Young Author appeared first on Publishing Perspectives. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives

[ Publishing Perspectives | 2021-03-16 16:41:14 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #young author #titles selected #zayed book


The Sheikh Zayed Book Award in Arabic Literature: The 2020 Literature Longlist

The Sheikh Zayed Book Award literature longlist includes work from Iraq, Sudan, the United Arab Emirates, Lebanon, Egypt, Syria, Palestine, and Tunisia. The post The Sheikh Zayed Book Award in Arabic Literature: The 2020 Literature Longlist appeared first on Publishing Perspectives. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives

[ Publishing Perspectives | 2020-01-06 09:30:20 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #arabic literature #zayed book


Live by the algorithm, die by the algorithm: How LittleThings went from social publishing darling to shutting down

Once a Facebook darling, LittleThings now looks like a case study for platform overreliance. The post Live by the algorithm, die by the algorithm: How LittleThings went from social publishing darling to shutting down appeared first on Digiday. Continue reading at Digiday

[ Digiday | 2018-03-01 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #case study


Too Enjoyable to Be Literature

“I pulled the Fitzgerald off a shelf in the bookshop where I had a summer job. It was so delicious and joyful to read, I could canter through it with such bright and sudden pleasure, that it felt almost criminal.” Continue reading at The Paris Review

[ The Paris Review | 2024-02-01 15:52:46 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #bookshop


Recovering the ‘Aryan worldview’: the West Australian book publisher under scrutiny over far right texts

Imperium Press, whose blog fosters a worldview it calls ‘folkishness’, has become an intellectual resource for the far right, but its works are widely available through mainstream sourcesGet our morning and afternoon news emails, free app or daily news podcastAt least one Australian-based online... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2024-01-14 14:00:30 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #free app #titles published #guardian australia #bookstore #book publisher


What Booksellers Can Teach Us About Reading, Writing and Publishing

My longtime girlfriend is a longtime bookseller. Her relationship with bookselling predates ours three times over. It is a surprisingly taxing career path—one that asks of the body, and of the mind. There are the bad days, where she brings home the classic bookseller gripes: failed hand-sells,... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2024-01-05 09:56:55 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #longtime bookseller #bad days #bookseller


‘Where does the bot end and human begin?’: what the legendary @Horse_ebooks can teach us about AI

By reusing and repurposing existing writing into viral fragments on Twitter, the account functioned like today’s chatbots. The Guardian spoke to Jacob Bakkila, the human behind the accountMore than a decade before an AI-powered chatbot could do your homework, help you make dinner or pass the bar... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2024-01-03 15:00:04 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #ebooks


Why Taylor Swift belongs on English literature degree courses

Miss Americana has been discussed in English literature classes for some years now – sometimes alongside Shakespeare. Continue reading at The Conversation

[ The Conversation | 2024-01-02 11:01:25 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #english literature


Electric Literature’s Most Popular Articles of 2023

In one of Electric Lit’s most-read essays of the year, “Black Women Are Being Erased From Book Publishing,” Jennifer Baker examines the publishing industry in the wake of the Black Lives Matter movement in 2020. She holds the publishing industry accountable for appointing high-profile Black... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2023-12-21 12:15:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #electric literature #electric lit #black women #book publishing #publishing industry