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Guest speaker analyses literary quality using computational analysis

01/03/2019
Guest speaker analyses literary quality using computational analysis

The University of Wolverhampton has secured a prestigious guest speaker to kick off its Faculty of Arts’ spring public lecture series.

Professor Karina van Dalen-Oskam, Head of the Department of Literary Studies at the Huygens Institute for the History of the Netherlands and Professor of Computational Literary Studies at the University of Amsterdam, will be delivering a lecture focussed on the possibility to measure literary quality using computational analysis.

Professor Dalen-Oskam’s research deals with the analysis of literary writing style and builds on her expertise in literary studies, medieval studies, onomastics and lexicography.  She is an active member of the international digital humanities community where she currently serves as Chair of the Steering Committee of the Alliance of Digital Humanities Organisations (ADHO).

The lecture, which will take place on Wednesday 13th March 2019 in the University of Wolverhampton School of Art, George Wallis Building in Wolverhampton between 6.00 pm and 7.00 pm, will focus on the topic of computers and literature working together. At 5.00 pm, there will be a wine reception to celebrate Van Dalen-Oskam’s cutting edge research.

Professor van Dalen-Oskam said:  “For many people the idea of computers and literature working together seems scary.

“In this lecture I will be talking about a research project which investigates whether we can measure stylistic features of contemporary novels to find out which features help the novel to be perceived as highly literary and which features actually might diminish an author’s chances for the Nobel Prize. We can also predict which books have the potential to become bestsellers.  

“Can we measure literary quality? Yes. My research aims to show that we can and I’ll be discussing this at length during the course of my lecture.”

More details can be found about the lecture here.  Anyone interested in studying in the School of Humanities should register for the next Open Day on Saturday 15th June 2019.

ENDS

 

For more information please contact the Corporate Communications Team.

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