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John B. Smith's Early Attempts at "Computer Criticism" of Literature

1973 to 1978
Thematic structure diagrams in Smith's Computer Criticism (1978).

Thematic structure diagrams in Smith's Computer Criticism (1978).

In 1978 American computer scientist John B. Smith, then of the Pennsylvania State University, theorized how computers could be used to study literature in "Computer Criticism," STYLE XII.4 (1978) 326-56. In this paper Smith proposed that algorithms or manual encoding could be used to create layers that represent structures in texts. These layers would be like the layer of imagery that he extracted and discussed in his earlier paper, "Image and Imagery in Joyce's Portrait: A Computer-Assisted Analysis," published in Directions in Literary Criticism: Contemporary Approaches to Literature. Eds. Weintraub & Young (1973) 220-27. Smith did not call these models, but they may be viewed as a form of surrogate that can be studied and compared to other surrogates. In his 1978 paper, “Computer Criticism,” Smith provided some visualizations of extracted features that showed some of the pioneering ways he was modelling texts.

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