big modernism

Topic Modeling for Literary AnalysisBig Modernism

Belaid Moa, PhDComputing Specialist, Compute CanadaJana Millar UsiskinPhD Student, Department of English

THE Challenge

THE PROCESS

If text analysis is to participate in literary critical endeavor in some manner beyond fact-checking, it must endeavor to assist the critic in the unfolding of interpretive possibilities. [. . .] The evidence we seek is not definitive, but suggestive of grander arguments and schemes.

Stephen Ramsay

Interpretive Possibilities

DEFINING

The Data SetAGGREGATING

metadata (xml) text (txt)

PreprocessINGcleaning text

PreprocessINGprepping for maximum interpretation

Learn from seen (large) dataPatterns, Properties, etc.

Perform well on unseen (large) dataPredictDecideClassify

“Torture data” just right

What is Machine Learning?

Analyzing

As simple as possible but not simpler.

Machine Learning

Machine Learning

Process

Categorization

Machine Learning

Labeled data

Unlabeled data

Rewarded data

Probabilistic/Bayesian Learning

Unsupervised Learning

Topic Modeling

BAYESIAN Learning

Find hidden (thematic) patterns/topics in documents

Produce labels according to the patterns

Understand, organize, search and summarize the collection of documents

Simple Idea!

process

Topic 1

Topic 3

Topic 2

Mrs Dalloway

Ulysses

house

Time

man ChildDay

Documents as a mixture of topics

LDA

Document 1

Document 2

Topics as a mixture of words

LDA

Topic 1arabs 0.023army 0.016railway 0.0146day 0.0144….

Topic 2God 0.020Father 0.0160soul 0.0135Sin 0.0080Priest0.00798….

Topic 3time 0.0129father 0.0107Sister 0.00677room 0.00676House 0.0066….

Topics as distributions on words

LDA

Topic 1

Topic 2

Topic 3

Generative Process

LDA

For each topic Tp,a)Choose a distribution pTp over wordsFor each novel Li:Choose a distribution pLi over K topicsfor each word in Li:

a) Draw one of the K topics, Tj, according to pLi

b) Draw one of the V words according to pTj

LDA NovelsLDA

children room room room people house house room afternoon doctor afternoon children room house children house doctor girl afternoon house night doctor room children afternoon children room house afternoon children

Novel 1

room afternoon doctor children house afternoon night children children children children room house afternoon people doctor house house doctor room doctor afternoon doctor room room house doctor afternoon children room

Novel 2

Graphical ModelLDA

ND

K

For Big Modernism

LDA

LDA(mallet train-topics

…)

Corpus

Filter

Topic & word Distributions

Exploration

Processingstreamlined script

Though the machine does a very good job in identifying the topics latent in a corpus, the machine does a comparatively poor job when it comes to auto-identifying which of the harvest topics are the most interpretable by human beings.

- Matt Jockers, Macroanalysis

Interpretation

post-processing

3SENSORY EXPERIENCE OF TEMPORALITYtime felt day looked knew work face hand night

18 TIME EMBODIEDeyes face life time white dark round hand head

26 INHABITING SPACESmen people began room house talk suddenly end years

TOPIC INDEX

Modernist Novels

Time Embodied

Inhabiting Everyday Spaces

POST-PROCESSINGLabeling Most Modernist Topics

Sensory Experienc

e of Temporali

ty

Sensory Experience of Temporality

POST-PROCESSING

Sensory Experience of Temporality

POST-PROCESSING

Inhabiting Spaces

POST-PROCESSING

Inhabiting Spaces

POST-PROCESSING

Time Embodied

POST-PROCESSING

Time Embodied

POST-PROCESSING

POST-PROCESSINGDistribution Table

Heart of Darkness >>> Lord Jim 0.052

Heart of Darkness >>> Secret Agent 0.809

Lord Jim >>> Secret Agent 0.729

Mrs. Dalloway >>> The Waves 0.586

The Great Gatsby >>> Tender is the Night 0.132

Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas >>> Three Lives 6.993

POST-PROCESSINGAuthor Distances

Top 10 Generic Modernist Novels

POST-PROCESSING

The AmbassadorsHoward’s EndTwilight SleepThe CaptiveThe Good SoldierThe AwakeningLord JimThe WavesHeart of Darkness

Top 10 Generic Modernist Novels

POST-PROCESSING

Mrs. DallowayThe AmbassadorsHoward’s EndTwilight SleepThe CaptiveThe Good SoldierThe AwakeningLord JimThe WavesHeart of Darkness

Top 10 UniqueModernist Novels

POST-PROCESSING

Seven PillarsThe TrialBabbittThe Autobiography of Alice B. ToklasThree LivesTime RegainedNightwood1984Passage to India

Top 10 UniqueModernist Novels

POST-PROCESSING

UlyssesSeven PillarsThe TrialBabbittThe Autobiography of Alice B. ToklasThree LivesTime RegainedNightwood1984Passage to India

Clustering

MachineLearning

Affinity Propagation

Clustering

Affinity Propagation

Clustering

Affinity Propagation

ClusteringExemplar

Cluster 1, exemplar Tender is the Night:The Awakening (Chopin), Heart of Darkness (Conrad), Lord Jim (Conrad), The Secret Agent (Conrad), The Great Gatsby (Fitzgerald), Tender is the Night (Fitzgerald), The Trial (Kafka), Babbitt (S. Lewis), Tarr (W. Lewis), 1984 (Orwell), Burmese Days (Orwell), The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas (Stein), Twilight Sleep (Wharton)

Cluster 2, exemplar Ulysses:Nightwood (Barnes), A Passage to India (Forster), Tess of the D’Urbervilles (Hardy), The Dubliners (Joyce), Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (Joyce), Ulysses (Joyce)

Cluster 3, exemplar Seven Pillars of Wisdom:Seven Pillars of Wisdom (Lawrence)

Cluster 4, exemplar Time Regained:The Ambassadors (James), The Captive (Proust), Time Regained (Proust)

Cluster 5, exemplar Mrs. Dalloway:The Good Soldier (Ford), Howard’s End (Forster), Sons and Lovers (Lawrence), Women in Love (Lawrence), Of Human Bondage (Maugham), Three Lives (Stein), The Picture of Dorian Gray (Wilde), Mrs. Dalloway (Woolf), The Waves (Woolf)

POST-PROCESSINGMODERNISM SUB-CLUSTERS

Cluster 1, exemplar Tender is the Night:The Awakening (Chopin), Heart of Darkness (Conrad), Lord Jim (Conrad), The Secret Agent (Conrad), The Great Gatsby (Fitzgerald), Tender is the Night (Fitzgerald), The Trial (Kafka), Babbitt (S. Lewis), Tarr (W. Lewis), 1984 (Orwell), Burmese Days (Orwell), The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas (Stein), Twilight Sleep (Wharton)

Cluster 2, exemplar Ulysses:Nightwood (Barnes), A Passage to India (Forster), Tess of the D’Urbervilles (Hardy), The Dubliners (Joyce), Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (Joyce), Ulysses (Joyce)

Cluster 3, exemplar Seven Pillars of Wisdom:Seven Pillars of Wisdom (Lawrence)

Cluster 4, exemplar Time Regained:The Ambassadors (James), The Captive (Proust), Time Regained (Proust)

Cluster 5, exemplar Mrs. Dalloway:The Good Soldier (Ford), Howard’s End (Forster), Sons and Lovers (Lawrence), Women in Love (Lawrence), Of Human Bondage (Maugham), Three Lives (Stein), The Picture of Dorian Gray (Wilde), Mrs. Dalloway (Woolf), The Waves (Woolf)

POST-PROCESSINGMODERNISM SUB-CLUSTERS

Affinity Propagation on Modernism

POST-PROCESSING

Affinity Propagation on Modernism

POST-PROCESSING

10GIFTS and SOCIETYgive felt time father mind people speak present poor

26 EMBODIED TIMEtime face hand eyes day looked place house turned

17FAMILY RELATIONSsister family mother friend manner feelings time morning father

27BODIES IN SPACEnight half round room eye eyes sat heard head

TOPIC INDEX

19th-Century Novels

Sensory Experience of Temporality

POST-PROCESSING

Family Relation

s

Embodied Time

Gifts and Social

Relations

Cluster 1, exemplar Emma (Austen):Emma (Austen), Pride and Prejudice (Austen), Persuasion (Austen)

Cluster 2, exemplar Villette (Brontë):Jane Eyre (Brontë), Villette (Brontë)

Cluster 3, exemplar A Tale of Two Cities (Dickens):A Tale of Two Cities (Dickens)

Cluster 4, exemplar Great Expectations (Dickens):Great Expectations (Dickens), Oliver Twist (Dickens), North and South (Gaskell), The Portrait of a Lady (James), The Turn of the Screw (James)

Cluster 5, exemplar Middlemarch (Eliot):Middlemarch (Eliot), Silas Marner (Eliot), The Mill on the Floss (Eliot), The Return of the Native (Eliot)

POST-PROCESSINGMODERNISM SUB-CLUSTERS

47TIME EMBODIEDface eyes time hand head night house turned looked

18 WOMEN, TIME, AND SPACEtime day mind room woman life years place heard

8SENSORY INTERPRETATIONfelt sense fact question face life present eyes light

TOPICS

Modernism and 19th-Century Novels

Cluster 1, exemplar Tender is the Night: Nightwood, The Awakening, Heart of Darkness, Lord Jim, The Great Gatsby, Tender is

the Night, Babbitt, Tarr, 1984, The Captive, Time Regained, The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas, Twilight Sleep

Cluster 2, exemplar A Passage to India: The Good Soldier, A Passage to India, The Trial, Burmese Days

Cluster 3, exemplar Ulysses: The Secret Agent, Dubliners, Portrait of the Artist, Ulysses, North and South

Cluster 4, exemplar Seven Pillars of Wisdom: Seven Pillars of Wisdom

Cluster 5, exemplar Mrs. Dalloway: Howard’s End, Women in Love, Sons and Lovers, Of Human Bondage, Three Lives,

The Picture of Dorian Gray, Mrs. Dalloway, The WavesCluster 6, exemplar Emma:

Emma, Persuasion, Pride and PrejudiceCluster 7, exemplar Great Expectations:

A Tale of Two Cities, Great Expectations, Oliver TwistCluster 8, exemplar Silas Marner:

Tess of the D’Urbervilles, Middlemarch, Silas Marner, The Mill on the Floss, Return of the Native

Cluster 9, exemplar The Turn of the Screw: The Ambassadors, The Turn of the Screw, Jane Eyre, Villette, The Portrait of a Lady,

The Turn of the Screw

POST-PROCESSINGMODERNISM AND 19th-CENTURY SUB-CLUSTERS

Cluster 1, exemplar Tender is the Night: Nightwood, The Awakening, Heart of Darkness, Lord Jim, The Great Gatsby, Tender is

the Night, Babbitt, Tarr, 1984, The Captive, Time Regained, The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas, Twilight Sleep

Cluster 2, exemplar A Passage to India: The Good Soldier, A Passage to India, The Trial, Burmese Days

Cluster 3, exemplar Ulysses: The Secret Agent, Dubliners, Portrait of the Artist, Ulysses, North and South

Cluster 4, exemplar Seven Pillars of Wisdom: Seven Pillars of Wisdom

Cluster 5, exemplar Mrs. Dalloway: Howard’s End, Women in Love, Sons and Lovers, Of Human Bondage, Three Lives,

The Picture of Dorian Gray, Mrs. Dalloway, The WavesCluster 6, exemplar Emma:

Emma, Persuasion, Pride and PrejudiceCluster 7, exemplar Great Expectations:

A Tale of Two Cities, Great Expectations, Oliver TwistCluster 8, exemplar Silas Marner:

Tess of the D’Urbervilles, Middlemarch, Silas Marner, The Mill on the Floss, Return of the Native

Cluster 9, exemplar The Turn of the Screw: The Ambassadors, The Turn of the Screw, Jane Eyre, Villette, The Portrait of a Lady,

The Turn of the Screw

POST-PROCESSINGMODERNISM AND 19th-CENTURY SUB-CLUSTERS

Cluster 1, exemplar Tender is the Night:The Awakening, The Great Gatsby, The Good Soldier, Howard’s End, A Passage to India, The Ambassadors, The Trial, Seven Pillars of Wisdom, Women in Love, Babbitt, Tarr, Of Human Bondage, 1984, Burmese Days, The Captive, Time Regained, The Autobiography of Alice B., Three Lives, Emma, Persuasion, Pride and Prejudice, Middlemarch, The Mill on the Floss, The Portrait of a Lady, The Turn of the Screw

Cluster 2, exemplar Ulysses:Nightwood, Heart of Darkness, Lord Jim, The Secret Agent, Tess of the D’Urbervilles, Dubliners, Portrait of the Artist, Sons and Lovers, Twilight Sleep, The Picture of Dorian Gray, Mrs. Dalloway, The Waves, Jane Eyre, Villette, A Tale of Two Cities, Great Expectations, Oliver Twist, Silas Marner, North and South, Return of the Native

POST-PROCESSINGMODERNISM AND 19th-CENTURY SUB-CLUSTERS

Cluster 1, exemplar Tender is the Night:The Awakening, The Great Gatsby, The Good Soldier, Howard’s End, A Passage to India, The Ambassadors, The Trial, Seven Pillars of Wisdom, Women in Love, Babbitt, Tarr, Of Human Bondage, 1984, Burmese Days, The Captive, Time Regained, The Autobiography of Alice B., Three Lives, Emma, Persuasion, Pride and Prejudice, Middlemarch, The Mill on the Floss, The Portrait of a Lady, The Turn of the Screw

Cluster 2, exemplar Ulysses:Nightwood, Heart of Darkness, Lord Jim, The Secret Agent, Tess of the D’Urbervilles, Dubliners, Portrait of the Artist, Sons and Lovers, Twilight Sleep, The Picture of Dorian Gray, Mrs. Dalloway, The Waves, Jane Eyre, Villette, A Tale of Two Cities, Great Expectations, Oliver Twist, Silas Marner, North and South, Return of the Native

POST-PROCESSINGMODERNISM AND 19th-CENTURY SUB-CLUSTERS

Mystery NovelsINFERENCE

Example: Given X.txt, Y.txt, and Z.txt novels, find the closest novel

Profiling the texts

INFERENCE

Mystery

TextsXYZ

Mystery Texts, Topic Inference

INFERENCESimilarity to other novels

Modernist Versions ProjectCompute Canada

Maker Lab in the Humanities

Contact info:Belaid Moa

bmoa@uvic.caJana Millar Usiskinjanamu@uvic.ca

@jana_mu

Thank you