Style, Statistics, and New Models of Authorship[1]

Abstract

In this essay I argue that humanities computing can change ideas about the role authors play within texts and can offer a path to a new conception of authorship. My focus is on computational stylistics in particular. The results of this practice tell us on a statistical basis that texts reflect the styles of their authors to a remarkable, perhaps unexpected, extent. The results do not support the idea that authors are insignificant as sources of meaning, but neither do they licence a return to an older idea of sovereign, hegemonic authors, as I hope to show. The findings of computational sylistics can serve to test theories about authorship and in turn to suggest modifications to those theories.

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