A Computational Analysis of Literary Style: Comparison of Kawabata Yasunari and Mishima Yukio
Reiko Tomatsu · 2006
The present study identifies the major stylistic characteristics of the fiction of Kawabata Yasunari and Mishima Yukio. The analysis is primarily based on quantitative data derived from computational analysis. A secondary goal of the research is to generate a computational model suitable for the analysis of all Japanese literary texts. According to Yasumoto Yoshinori's study in 1965, Kawabata and Mishima share few common stylistic features, and therefore their writing styles should show some distinct stylistic contrasts. The focus of the present study is to explore these stylistic contrasts. Only a small percentage of these studies have dealt with linguistic features of Kawabata and Mishima, and even these have not been based on an objective analysis of all the related data. To my knowledge no other researchers have conducted an intensive statistical investigation of their styles. To address the limitations of the past studies I conducted an intensive corpus linguistic analysis of the works by Kawabata and Mishima, and attempt a literary stylistic interpretation of our collected statistical data. All the selected stylistic indicators I examined have revealed the characteristics of the writing styles of Kawabata and Mishima to varying extents. I have identified three levels of indicators of writing styles. The findings of our quantitative study have provided concrete evidence to contribute towards an objective assessment of the style of Kawabata and Mishima. The computational model established in the present research can also be used to analyse Japanese literary texts.