Videos

The Algorithm and the Urn

Presenter
May 24, 2016
Abstract
Lisa Rhody The Graduate Center, CUNY Drawing on examples from a study on poetry and the visual arts, I demonstrate potential hermeneutic approaches to literary texts, such as poetry, using topic modeling. Building upon Stephen Ramsay’s proposed algorithmic criticism, I will consider the limited “frames” (Mieke Bal) available through close reading and suggest means by which activist, progressive, or intentional framing through algorithmic criticism can enable cultural studies practices in literary interpretation, complementing close reading. In the end, I will offer speculative possibilities for algorithmically assisted reading strategies that resituate and extend the available methods of “reading” for literary scholars and students.