Sentiment Analysis of Late Victorian Novels : Opportunities and
Challenges

k 2020

Sentiment Analysis of Late Victorian Novels : Opportunities and Challenges

VELESKI, Stefan

Basic information

Original name

Sentiment Analysis of Late Victorian Novels : Opportunities and Challenges

Authors

VELESKI, Stefan

Edition

Agency and Emotion in the Nineteenth Century, 26-27.11.2020, Centre for Nineteenth-Century Studies, University of Durham, 2020

Other information

Language

English

Type of outcome

Prezentace na konferencích

Field of Study

60206 Specific literatures

Country of publisher

United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland

Confidentiality degree

není předmětem státního či obchodního tajemství

References:

Conference programme Conference web page

Organization unit

Faculty of Arts

Keywords in English

cultural evolution; sentiment analysis; Victorian novels; cultural longevity; emotional valence; emotional arousal

Abstract

V originále

Computational research has been steadily gaining ground in literary studies and Victorian fiction has been one of its main objects of study. However, this research has mostly sought to empirically corroborate concepts proposed by literary scholars and has been out of sync with theoretical considerations from the field of cultural evolution and the cognitive sciences. This paper aims to show the massive potential of this theoretical framework for guiding empirical research in literary studies, by applying it in a hypothesis-driven sentiment analysis of late Victorian novels. With the help of the “syuzhet” and “sentimentr” packages in the R programming language, this paper analyses the emotional valence and emotional arousal of a sample of 846 late Victorian novels published in the UK, available on Project Gutenberg. The main hypothesis of the paper is informed by the cognitive sciences—novels with a lower emotional valence and higher emotional arousal would be more successful in cultural transmission, which would in turn increase their cultural longevity. The analysis also looks into the relationship between the derived sentiment values, the genre of the novels and the gender of their authors. Finally, the paper deals with the limitations and potential flaws of such analyses and outlines several possible trajectories that future investigations can take.

Links

MUNI/A/1204/2019, interní kód MU

Name: Researching Communication in English: Paradigms, Strategies, Developments - II (Acronym: ReComE 2020)

Investor: Masaryk University, Category A

Citovat

VELESKI, Stefan. Sentiment Analysis of Late Victorian Novels : Opportunities and Challenges. In Agency and Emotion in the Nineteenth Century, 26-27.11.2020, Centre for Nineteenth-Century Studies, University of Durham. 2020.

@proceedings{1701936,
   author = {Veleski, Stefan},
   booktitle = {Agency and Emotion in the Nineteenth Century, 26-27.11.2020, Centre for Nineteenth-Century Studies, University of Durham},
   keywords = {cultural evolution; sentiment analysis; Victorian novels; cultural longevity; emotional valence; emotional arousal},
   language = {eng},
   title = {Sentiment Analysis of Late Victorian Novels : Opportunities and Challenges},
   url = {https://www.dur.ac.uk/resources/cncs/conferences/CNCSAgencyandEmotionProgrammeFixed.pdf},
   year = {2020}
}

TY  - CONF
ID  - 1701936
AU  - Veleski, Stefan
PY  - 2020
TI  - Sentiment Analysis of Late Victorian Novels : Opportunities and Challenges
KW  - cultural evolution
KW  - sentiment analysis
KW  - Victorian novels
KW  - cultural longevity
KW  - emotional valence
KW  - emotional arousal
UR  - https://www.dur.ac.uk/resources/cncs/conferences/CNCSAgencyandEmotionProgrammeFixed.pdf
N2  - Computational research has been steadily gaining ground in literary studies and Victorian fiction has been one of its main objects of study. However, this research has mostly sought to empirically corroborate concepts proposed by literary scholars and has been out of sync with theoretical considerations from the field of cultural evolution and the cognitive sciences. This paper aims to show the massive potential of this theoretical framework for guiding empirical research in literary studies, by applying it in a hypothesis-driven sentiment analysis of late Victorian novels. With the help of the “syuzhet” and “sentimentr” packages in the R programming language, this paper analyses the emotional valence and emotional arousal of a sample of 846 late Victorian novels published in the UK, available on Project Gutenberg. The main hypothesis of the paper is informed by the cognitive sciences—novels with a lower emotional valence and higher emotional arousal would be more successful in cultural transmission, which would in turn increase their cultural longevity. The analysis also looks into the relationship between the derived sentiment values, the genre of the novels and the gender of their authors. Finally, the paper deals with the limitations and potential flaws of such analyses and outlines several possible trajectories that future investigations can take.
ER  -

VELESKI, Stefan. Sentiment Analysis of Late Victorian Novels : Opportunities and Challenges. In \textit{Agency and Emotion in the Nineteenth Century, 26-27.11.2020, Centre for Nineteenth-Century Studies, University of Durham}. 2020.

Detailed Information on Publication Record