Introduction

Kenna, Ralph; MacCarron, Máirín; MacCarron, Pádraig

doi:10.1007/978-3-319-39445-9_1

Cited by 3 publications

(3 citation statements)

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“…The positioning of this paper relative to the context, initiatives, and aspirations of digital humanities merits further comment. The recent review ( 46 ) identified some of its methods and themes, developed in the context of comparative mythology and traditional epic narrative cycles in particular ( 8 ), as one of four focal points in the extraction and analysis of character networks (the remaining three foci being literary analysis, video narratives, and computer science methods aimed at data extraction). Here we go beyond such character network considerations by introducing two elements to quantitative narratology, namely, the questions of cognitive limits and the interplay between story time and discourse time ( 10 ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Narrative structure of A Song of Ice and Fire creates a fictional world with realistic measures of social complexity

Gessey-Jones

Connaughton

Dunbar

et al. 2020

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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Network science and data analytics are used to quantify static and dynamic structures in George R. R. Martin’s epic novels, A Song of Ice and Fire, works noted for their scale and complexity. By tracking the network of character interactions as the story unfolds, it is found that structural properties remain approximately stable and comparable to real-world social networks. Furthermore, the degrees of the most connected characters reflect a cognitive limit on the number of concurrent social connections that humans tend to maintain. We also analyze the distribution of time intervals between significant deaths measured with respect to the in-story timeline. These are consistent with power-law distributions commonly found in interevent times for a range of nonviolent human activities in the real world. We propose that structural features in the narrative that are reflected in our actual social world help readers to follow and to relate to the story, despite its sprawling extent. It is also found that the distribution of intervals between significant deaths in chapters is different to that for the in-story timeline; it is geometric rather than power law. Geometric distributions are memoryless in that the time since the last death does not inform as to the time to the next. This provides measurable support for the widely held view that significant deaths in A Song of Ice and Fire are unpredictable chapter by chapter.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Storytelling is an ancient art form which plays an important mechanism in social bonding ( 6 – 8 ). It is recognized that the social worlds created in narratives often adhere to a principle of minimal difference whereby social relationships reflect those in real life—even if set in a fantastical or improbable world ( 9 ).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Narrative structure of A Song of Ice and Fire creates a fictional world with realistic measures of social complexity

Gessey-Jones

Connaughton

Dunbar

et al. 2020

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

Self Cite

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“…In particular, quantitative investigations of epic narratives can advance our understanding of the past. A plethora of quantitative approaches and suggestions to investigate societal and cultural aspects of the past are contained in the compendium [ 1 ]. Here, we apply and develop one such method to a long-standing debate about the Viking Age in Ireland.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Network analysis of the Viking Age in Ireland as portrayed inCogadh Gaedhel re Gallaibh

et al. 2018

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Cogadh Gaedhel re Gallaibh (‘The War of the Gaedhil with the Gaill’) is a medieval Irish text, telling how an army under the leadership of Brian Boru challenged Viking invaders and their allies in Ireland, culminating with the Battle of Clontarf in 1014. Brian’s victory is widely remembered for breaking Viking power in Ireland, although much modern scholarship disputes traditional perceptions. Instead of an international conflict between Irish and Viking, interpretations based on revisionist scholarship consider it a domestic feud or civil war. Counter-revisionists challenge this view and a long-standing and lively debate continues. Here, we introduce quantitative measures to the discussions. We present statistical analyses of network data embedded in the text to position its sets of interactions on a spectrum from the domestic to the international. This delivers a picture that lies between antipodal traditional and revisionist extremes; hostilities recorded in the text are mostly between Irish and Viking—but internal conflict forms a significant proportion of the negative interactions too.

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Von der Metapher zur Methode

Gramsch-Stehfest¹

2020

ZHF

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Summary From Metaphor to Method. Network Analysis as an Instrument for Research into Pre-Modern Societies The paper introduces an important and promising branch into the field of the rapidly evolving Digital Humanities, the Social Network Analysis (SNA). SNA can be defined as the application of the graph theory to the problem of modelling and analysing social structures. The network paradigm stresses the importance of relational aspects in history and it fits very well into pre-modern mentality and social practices. In a weakly institutionalised face-to-face society, social entanglements and interactions were absolutely crucial. Today, the development of modern computer technology and the ubiquity of the World Wide Web as well as social networks such as Facebook promote the application of this research paradigm. The article alludes to recent research contributions and discusses frequent methodological objections against the use of SNA in medieval and early modern history studies. In a second step, medieval network thinking and networking strategies which can be found for instance in genealogical sources and humanistic exchange of letters are discussed as possible objects of historical network research. Finally, a preliminary case study demonstrates how techniques of Text Mining and SNA can be applied to the investigation of late medieval Vatican registers, providing new insights into the money transfer (payment of annates) between Germany and Rome during the pontificate of Pope Sixtus IV. (1471 - 1484).

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Introduction

Cited by 3 publications

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Narrative structure of A Song of Ice and Fire creates a fictional world with realistic measures of social complexity

Narrative structure of A Song of Ice and Fire creates a fictional world with realistic measures of social complexity

Network analysis of the Viking Age in Ireland as portrayed inCogadh Gaedhel re Gallaibh

Von der Metapher zur Methode

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