The English Gothic Novel. Theories and Praxis of Computer-Based Macro-Analysis in literary studies

In his work Maps, Graphs, Trees, Franco Moretti develops the concept of distant reading which can be resumed as the need for a new bird’s eye perspective in the study of literary phenomena as an alternative to the close reading of a few canonical masterpieces. In the current age of digital revolution, the idea of a more comprehensive study of literary history has been gaining popularity thanks to the computer-based macro-analysis. In fact, the unprecedented accessibility of libraries and databases of digital texts are rapidly changing the critical approach to textual studies, thus producing a massive epistemological shift from the traditional theory-driven inductive research to a new experience of data-driven deductive quest. David Hume and Karl Popper among others have already drawn attention to the fact that in many domains of human reasoning, practices are established before explanations are provided. In this way, the data-driven deductive approach can explain a set of given phenomena eluding the obstructions of theory-driven biases. This chapter explores the theoretical premises at the basis of the computer-based macro-analysis in literary studies, as well as the possible experimental praxis focusing on the study of an entire novelistic genre—the English gothic novel—as case study.