Computing Action

by Meister, Jan C.

• ISBN13: 9783110176285
• ISBN10: 3110176289
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2004-02-01
• Publisher: De Gruyter

Summary

Computing Action takes a new approach to the phenomenon of narrated action in literary texts. It begins with a survey of philosophical approaches to the concept of action, ranging from analytical to transcendental and finally constructivist definitions. This leads to the formulation of a new model of action, in which the core definitions developed in traditional structuralist narratology and Greimassian semiotics are reconceptualised in the light of constructivist theories.In the second part of the study, the combinatory model of action proposed is put into practice in the context of a computer-aided investigation of the action constructs logically implied by narrative texts. Two specialised literary computing tools were developed for the purposes of this investigation of textual data: EVENTPARSER, an interactive tool for parsing events in literary texts, and EPITEST, a tool for subjecting the mark-up files thus produced to a combinatory analysis of the episode and action constructs they contain. The third part of the book presents a case study of Goethe's Unterhaltungen deutscher Ausgewanderten. Here, the practical application of theory and methodology eventually leads to a new interpretation of Goethe's famous Novellenzyklus as a systematic experiment in the narrative construction of action - an experiment intended to demonstrate not only Goethe's aesthetic principles, but also, and more fundamentally, his epistemological convictions.

Table of Contents

List of Tables
List of Figures
Foreword
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Concepts of Action	p. 1
Action as Project and Construct	p. 3
Action: From Word to Concept	p. 29
Philosophical Definitions of Action	p. 48
The Elements of the Action Construct	p. 90
The Computer-Aided Analysis of Narrated Action	p. 199
Narratology and Literary Computing	p. 201
The EventParser Program	p. 214
Constructing EPISODES and ACTIONS	p. 224
The EpiTest Program	p. 242
Action Potential and ACTION Product	p. 248
Practical Analysis Using EpiTest	p. 253
An Experiment in Action: Conversations of German Refugees	p. 257
Critical Approaches to the Conversations	p. 259
Describing the Conversations	p. 275
Explaining the Conversations	p. 287
Conclusion	p. 303
References	p. 307
Author Index	p. 329
Subject Index	p. 333
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