Epic Analysis
August 2, 2012
A unique application of text analytics may hint at a future for English majors, at last! Phys.org News informs us, “Physicists Study the Classics for Hidden Truths.” Scholars at Coventry University analyzed the Illiad, Beowulf, and the Irish epic Táin Bó Cuailnge. They found that, in all three mythological works, character interactions mirror those found in today’s social networks.
The write up describes the study’s methodology:
“The researchers created a database for each of the three stories and mapped out the characters’ interactions. There were 74 characters identified in Beowulf, 404 in the Táin and 716 in the Iliad.
“Each character was assigned a number, or degree, based on how popular they were, or how many links they had to other characters. The researchers then measured how these degrees were distributed throughout the whole network.
“The types of relationships that existed between the characters were also analysed using two specific criteria: friendliness and hostility.
“Friendly links were made if characters were related, spoke to each other, spoke about one another or it is otherwise clear that they know each other amicably. Hostile links were made if two characters met in a conflict, or when a character clearly displayed animosity against somebody they know.”
These interaction maps paralleled those found in real-life networks. On the other hand, the same analysis of four fictional tales, Les Misérables, Richard III, The Fellowship of the Ring, and Harry Potter, turned up clear differences from real-life interactions. (See the article for more details on these differences.)
Interesting—the classical epics are more true-to-life than fiction. This is not to say that everything in them can be taken as facts, of course; no one insists Beowulf slew a real dragon, for example. However, the study does suggest that as the craft of story writing was refined, it moved away from realistic portrayal of societies and the ways folks related to each other. Why would that be? Ask an English major.
Cynthia Murrell, August 2, 2012
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
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