Quantitative Analysis and Literary Studies

Abstract

Quantitative approaches to literature represent elements or characteristics of literary texts numerically, applying the powerful, accurate, and widely accepted methods of mathematics to measurement, classification, and analysis. Authorship attribution and statistical stylistics (or stylometry), currently two of the most important areas of quantitative analysis of literature, deserve a fuller treatment. As has often been noted, quantitative analysis has not had much impact on traditional literary studies. The theoretical climate in literary studies over the past few decades is also partly responsible for the lack of impact, as literary theory has led critics to turn their attention away from the text and toward its social, cultural, economic, and political contexts, and to distrust any approach that suggests a scientific or “objective” methodology.

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