Networks In Literary History: The Salons Project

Abstract

So far the digital humanities that goes in literature departments has been primarily textual: text-mining, topic modeling, etc. Networks and network analysis have been used primarily in digital history. Yet networks have much to offer literary critics—both literary historians and critics who specialize in character and narrative structures (narratology). How can we use more rigorous concepts from network analysis to complement traditional literary studies approaches like the study of poetic circles, theater groups, and publishing collectives? This paper discusses some methods and tools that can be used from network analysis to do literary research. Drawing upon my experience as lead investigator for The Salons Project, a part of Stanford University’s Mapping the Republic of Letters (http://republicofletters.stanford.edu/casestudies/salons.html), I will discuss strategies for literary scholars and research collectives to make use of networks and linked data (also known as the semantic web). Working with an international team of scholars, mostly from North America and Europe, over long distances and timeframes, I am drawing a map of Europe’s salons over a 400-year period. Such a vast project would be impossible to complete without concepts from network theory or access to linked data resources.

I will speak briefly about The Salons Project as an example of a mid-scale digital humanities project in literature. What we seek to do is to chart the movements of individuals between literary salons (as well as works premiered and discussed in literary salons) will reveal underlying patterns in movement between salons and overlaps between salons that individual researchers are not able to perceive. The end goal is to redraw the map of European literary movements as dynamic social phenomena rather than the source of rigid, ideological identifiers like Romantic or Decadent by considering the social connections between authors, artists, and others, primarily through the salons but also through academies and clubs. I will then discuss linked data resources available (VIAF, ULAN) for humanities scholars to tap into already existing data sources. Finally, I will show how we use network visualization tools like Gephi and Palladio (http://palladio.designhumanities.org) to show the change in networks like salons over time and distances.