An onomasticon-based quantitative method for identifying of storylines in a literary work
- DOI
- 10.5922/vestnikpsy-2024-4-5
- Pages
- 47-60
Abstract
One of the branches of digital humanities research is the analysis of the structure of literary works. Among the research directions in this field, the creation of a social network of character interactions is particularly popular. Another important task is the analysis of the structure of a work, the identification of narrative units, and their comparison. This article proposes a quantitative method for identifying plot lines based on the analysis of character names and location names. The author’s division of the text into chapters is used as the unit of analysis, as it most adequately reflects the overall intent. The method is based on finding intersections of the onomastic content of chapters, with intersections evaluated using the Dice coefficient. The presence of a metric allows for the construction of a chapter connectivity graph, from which the most connected fragments can be extracted using the Louvain algorithm. The method has been tested on M. A. Bulgakov’s novel The Master and Margarita. Primarily, the plotline of Yeshua and Pilate in Yershalaim was separated from the events in Moscow. The Moscow events were divided into three subplots: the story of the MASSOLIT members and their relationship with the Master, the Moscow Variety Theater and its employees, and Margarita’s story. The story of Woland and his retinue was closely intertwined with the other plots and did not form an independent fragment.