Interpreting Texts and Their Characters
Emilio M. Sanfilippo, Claudio Masolo, Emanuele Bottazzi, Roberta Ferrario · Frontiers in artificial intelligence and applications · 2024
Research in Digital Humanities calls for computational systems to document, compare, and analyze interpretations of cultural artifacts such as literary texts. These systems are intended to support scholars, critics, and students by facilitating access to existing analyses of texts, identifying similarities and divergences between interpretations, and more. We propose an approach for documenting interpretations of literary characters, grounded in the empirical practices of literary interpretation to align closely with experts’ methods. To achieve this, we remain neutral regarding the ontological status of characters, instead relying on formal approaches based on linguistics. We demonstrate how our approach can analyze relations between names of fictional characters across texts and authors, bridging discussions in analytic philosophy about identity with the interests of literary scholars.