- Aug 2018
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A light fringe of snow lay like a cape on the shoulders of his overcoat and like toecaps on the toes of his goloshes; and, as the buttons of his overcoat slipped with a squeaking noise through the snow-stiffened frieze, a cold, fragrant air from out-of-doors escaped from crevices and folds.
Here we find yet another personification of air, which enwraps the story with subtle layers of movement and circulation. We could trace this pattern, and its effects on narrative time and narrative progress, through concordances and dispersion plots of "air" and any wind-related words.
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It was a bright Sunday morning of early summer, promising heat, but with a fresh breeze blowing. All the windows of the boarding house were open and the lace curtains ballooned gently towards the street beneath the raised sashes.
The windows allow a "fresh breeze" to enter Mrs. Mooney's house, opening up a circulatory channel between the house's interior and the summery world that surrounds it. A concordance and dispersion plot of the word "window" would allow us to trace the figure of the window across all of the stories. After all, the window paradoxically enables characters like Eveline to behold the outside world--and all of the openings and escapes that the view suggests--but blocks immediate access to wider horizons.
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- Jul 2018
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But if it had been cold in the cabin, on deck it was like ice. The sun was not up yet, but the stars were dim, and the cold pale sky was the same colour as the cold pale sea. On the land a white mist rose and fell. Now they could see quite plainly dark bush. Even the shapes of the umbrella ferns showed, and those strange silvery withered trees that are like skeletons... Now they could see the landing-stage and some little houses, pale too, clustered together, like shells on the lid of a box. The other passengers tramped up and down, but more slowly than they had the night before, and they looked gloomy.
This interlude slows the narrative down with sensory details that evoke unease and gloom: from the icy air, to the skeleton-like trees, to the clustered houses, to the trudging passengers, the reader cannot help but anxiously anticipate the events and conversations that will follow. We can broaden our exploration of how the story creates this mood by tracing the words "cold," "pale," and "dark" with word counts, concordances, and dispersion plots.
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pale
This word occurs five times in this story, both as a verb (i.e., to become pale, or to appear less important and remarkable in comparison to something else) and as a drab color. Along with a concordance, a dispersion plot with "pale" and the more vibrant colors that populate the story would illuminate the visual, textural, and perhaps symbolic significance of paleness.
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flushed
The motif of facial flushing/blushing would be interesting to trace with a concordance and dispersion plots. What are the material, affective, and characterological causes and significances of blushing in this story? Put more simply, when and why do women blush?
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She tugged at his sleeve, and to his astonishment, this time, instead of laughing, she looked like a little girl who was going to cry.
Throughout the story, the narrator references specific parts of articles of clothing (e.g., "collar," "sleeve," etc.). We could use concordances and dispersion plots to trace this clothing motif and begin to investigate its material and affective significances.
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I read those miraculous words with an emphasis which did them justice, and then I looked him severely in the face. “NOW, sir, do you believe in ROBINSON CRUSOE?” I asked, with a solemnity, suitable to the occasion.
This is the thirtieth and final time that the word "justice" appears in The Moonstone. What does "justice" mean in this text? In what ways does the novel's conclusion do (or fail to do) "justice" to the narrative buildup? What do different characters mean when they mention "justice"? What would a concordance and dispersion plot illuminate about the linguistic and conceptual workings of "justice" throughout The Moonstone?
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