This thesis explores the transformative impact of digital mediums and computational textual analysis tools on the reading and interpretation of Jane Austen's works. Through a comprehensive...Show moreThis thesis explores the transformative impact of digital mediums and computational textual analysis tools on the reading and interpretation of Jane Austen's works. Through a comprehensive examination, the study contrasts traditional print reading with digital methods, emphasizing the shift in the literary landscape. Chapter 1 introduces the research questions and relevant theoretical framework, focusing on how digital tools influence the comprehension and appreciation of Austen's texts. Chapter 2 delves into the historical context, examining the reception and interpretation of Austen's novels by established critics through close reading methods. Chapter 3 presents a detailed case study, utilising digital textual analysis to uncover patterns and themes in Austen's writing. The conclusion synthesises these findings, highlighting the enhanced efficiency of textual analysis, and the unveiling of new aspects in Austen's texts. The research demonstrates the value of digital tools in providing empirical evidence and new insights, enriching the field of literary criticism. It also addresses the relevance and future potential of computational methods, proposing directions for further research and acknowledging the limitations of computational research in the literary field and the current study. This work underscores the significant role of digital innovation in reshaping the study and appreciation of classic literature.Show less
Sentiment analysis is the method of computationally recognising opinions stated in a piece of text, particularly to identify if the writer has a positive, negative, or neutral attitude towards a...Show moreSentiment analysis is the method of computationally recognising opinions stated in a piece of text, particularly to identify if the writer has a positive, negative, or neutral attitude towards a given topic. Although sentiment analysis is commonly used to analyse short texts on social media platforms, its application in literary research has gained traction in recent years. The emergence of sentiment analysis tools, such as Syuzhet, has notably expanded the research possibilities in this field. However, despite these advancements, there remains a need to further explore and understand the strengths and limitations of sentiment analysis in the context of literary analysis. The aim of this thesis is to further the body of knowledge about the use of sentiment analysis as a technique for plot extraction. Throughout this thesis, I experiment with a modified form of the social media analysis tool VADER. While this method proofs to work as an effective tool for extracting sentiment from linear stories, it still shows limitation on a sentence-to-sentence basis. Moreover, I use this tool to replicate an often-cited study by Reagan et al., where it was stated that the majority of stories can be categorized in six basic ‘plot shapes’. I argue that while most of these shapes can still be identified using an alternative sentiment analysis technique, this technique occasionally classifies a story into a different shape than Reagan et al.’s analysis did. I conclude by giving a critical evaluation of sentiment analysis as a tool for plot extraction. Since the ‘plot’ of a story is a multifaceted concept, we cannot simply argue that a sentiment analysis graph displays the progression of plot. Nonetheless, modifications can be made to get a fuller understanding of the narrative of a story.Show less
The Korean peninsula knows a long history of book culture, and attention to it has ranged from the earliest known texts to the recently growing interest in modern Korean literature that came with...Show moreThe Korean peninsula knows a long history of book culture, and attention to it has ranged from the earliest known texts to the recently growing interest in modern Korean literature that came with the ‘Korean wave’. Many of the now canonical works find their roots in the colonial era in Korea (1910-1945) and various aspects pertaining to textual production during this era have been researched by scholars. However, an often-overlooked history is that of the printers and printshops in colonial Korea who had a significant influence over book production. With this loss of primary source material directly stemming from these printshops, the only other source indicating the printer of a text is the included colophon. This colophon is often damaged or simply missing in older books, and to this date there is no efficient method to recover this lost information. Thereby preventing any sizeable quantitative study of printshops in colonial Korea. This MA Thesis will examine the possibility of using convolutional neural networks (ConvNet) to identify the printshop of a given text dating to colonial Korea in order to allow large- scale quantitative research into colonial Korean printshops, which has been impossible thus far It will do this through a case study approach that aims to successfully classify books of four colonial Korean printshops, namely, the Hansŏng Tosŏ Chusik Hoesa (漢城圖書株式會社), Taedong inswaeso (大東印刷所), Sinmungwan (新文館), and Chosŏn inswae chusik hoesa (朝鮮印刷株 式會社). The findings here can be applied to a more extensive set of printers, given enough data and time. Therefore, this research is of high importance to the field of Korean history, as it is an essential step in charting the history of colonial Korean printers. Additionally, the benefits gained from this study are also helpful in the field of digital humanities, as this study will not only focus on the production and performance of a model but also include dataset construction and model explainability. The latter is a vital part and often missing in other DH scholarly work related to ConvNets. Hence, this paper is highly relevant to Korean historical research, and its methodology can be used far beyond the context of colonial-era printshops.Show less
We examine in detail the FAIR Guiding Principles, what they are, why they were created, as well as highlight the difference between Linked Open Data and FAIR. We then give an overview of the...Show moreWe examine in detail the FAIR Guiding Principles, what they are, why they were created, as well as highlight the difference between Linked Open Data and FAIR. We then give an overview of the current environment of humanities scholarship, paying particular attention to the Digital Humanities and book history. We explore some of the reasons that the implementation of FAIR is significantly slower in the Humanities compared to the Sciences or Social Sciences by highlighting some of the challenges faced by humanities scholars in terms of producing and quantifying digital research data that is also easily findable and reusable, while taking time to discuss issues found in all disciplines such as IP, copyright, and privacy laws, as well as issues concerning authenticity, authority, trust, verification, and uncertainty relevant to open-source platforms and digital assets. A case study is then presented using a database that was created using information from the original book catalogue and cashbooks from the Bibliotheca Thysiana, a seventeenth-century library located in Leiden, The Netherlands. After analyzing the quality of the data from the Thysiana based on the requirements of the FAIR Principles, we then utilize the steps in the FAIRification Process by applying each to the database one at a time, highlighting any challenges along the way. Finally, we conclude with thoughts and criticisms on the feasibility of the application of FAIR onto a humanities database, suggesting that it is indeed a guide that can be implemented practically in the field of book history, yet not without some challenges and forethought.Show less
This thesis investigates discursive trends on the topic of productivity and entrepreneurship in resource-rich Middle East countries (specifically Gulf Cooperation Council states). It provides both...Show moreThis thesis investigates discursive trends on the topic of productivity and entrepreneurship in resource-rich Middle East countries (specifically Gulf Cooperation Council states). It provides both qualitative and quantitative analyses of the existing literature. General findings point to the dominant role that the Rentier State Theory has had in shaping the discourse.Show less
Bachelor thesis | Nederlandse taal en cultuur (BA)
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Tegenwoordig zal Top Naeff (1878-1953) vooral herinnerd worden door haar debuutroman: het meisjesboek Schoolidyllen (1900). Een vluchtige blik door haar bibliografie geeft een veelzijdiger beeld:...Show moreTegenwoordig zal Top Naeff (1878-1953) vooral herinnerd worden door haar debuutroman: het meisjesboek Schoolidyllen (1900). Een vluchtige blik door haar bibliografie geeft een veelzijdiger beeld: Gedurende de eerste helft van de twintigste eeuw schreef Naeff een groot aantal romans, essays en korte verhalen. Bovendien was zij een zeer invloedrijke stem in de toneelwereld door haar redacteurschap in De Groene Amsterdammer en de Elsevier. Pas vanaf de jaren twintig, toen een nieuwe generatie critici het literaire roer overnam, is Naeff samen met haar collega-'damesromancières' in een kwaad daglicht komen te staan. Aan de hand van enkele honderden brieven, inzichtbaar in het Literatuurmuseum in Den Haag, maakt Van der Peet een analyse van Naeffs 'damesschrijverschap'. Was de negatieve beeldvorming rondom Naeff wijdverspreid of slechts het werk van een handjevol luidruchtige Forum-critici? Hierbij maakt hij gebruik van visualisatie-technieken uit de Digital Humanities.Show less
Bachelor thesis | Nederlandse taal en cultuur (BA)
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In deze bachelorscriptie is de correspondentie van Emmy van Lokhorst geanalyseerd op zowel kwalitatieve als kwantitatieve wijze om het beeld van Van Lokhorst als 'minnares' of 'geliefde' recht te...Show moreIn deze bachelorscriptie is de correspondentie van Emmy van Lokhorst geanalyseerd op zowel kwalitatieve als kwantitatieve wijze om het beeld van Van Lokhorst als 'minnares' of 'geliefde' recht te zetten. Van Lokhorst was namelijk veel meer dan dat: ze was auteur, secretaris van de Vereniging van Letterkundigen, vertaler en criticus. De methoden van Digital Humanities en biografiestudies zijn gebruikt voor de correspondentie-analyse.Show less
This research demonstrates and analyses a quantitative approach to literary criticism in the Digital Humanities by predominantly aiming to answer the question: is there a clearly distinguishable...Show moreThis research demonstrates and analyses a quantitative approach to literary criticism in the Digital Humanities by predominantly aiming to answer the question: is there a clearly distinguishable female writing style that is a shared foundation of female author’s novels in the Victorian period? In order to achieve this goal, a number of steps had to be taken. First, a foundation for this research’s case study was established by explaining the socio-cultural history of women writers in the Victorian period and by detailing the history of the Digital Humanities and computational research. Secondly, the compilation of the corpus and the methodology of the case study were elaborately explained and all decisions justified. The predominant terminology – the terms writing style and gender – were clarified as well in order to exclude confusion or multiple interpretations of these elements. Thirdly, the results of the case study were presented and interpreted. Here a conscious decision was made to only discuss these outliers briefly instead of examining them with close reading as this study predominantly focused on similarities instead of abnormalities in writing style between women in the Victorian period. Lastly, the limits of this study were discussed in detail and suggestions for future research were made.Show less
With 300 million monthly active users, Twitter is a global social media platform embedded in everyday communication and information diffusion. As a result, it has attracted a wide range of...Show moreWith 300 million monthly active users, Twitter is a global social media platform embedded in everyday communication and information diffusion. As a result, it has attracted a wide range of scholarly disciplines, studying its data, resulting in hundreds of studies that utilized Twitter’s data. This thesis will focus on the challenges and potential of using Twitter data for Humanities. As every social media platform has its unique dynamics, Twitters structure will be explored to see how it relates to the research questions applied to it. The process of increasing policy-orientated measures, will be described to illustrate how Twitter data is a valuable, and therefore limited accessible form of information. A number of studies is analyzed to explore potential methods and the results. Finally, a case study will be executed to demonstrate both the challenges and potential for humanities students. The focus will be on how Twitter’s 140 character long tweets can eventually be used to attribute to the greater stories written about human society and culture.Show less
Three remarkable minds shaped the computer world as we know it today. Douglas Engelbart invented the man-machine interaction system and Theodor Holm Nelson laid out the basic structure of hypertext...Show moreThree remarkable minds shaped the computer world as we know it today. Douglas Engelbart invented the man-machine interaction system and Theodor Holm Nelson laid out the basic structure of hypertext, which serves as the underpinning principle of the Internet. Both men were inspired by Vannevar Bush, the science advisor to president Roosevelt during World War II and an influential information theorist after that. The question is, were these authors already thinking about the future of humanism as an intellectual discipline? As it turns out, formative ideas for humanism in the computer were already present from the outset.Show less
