Join the DH reading group and workshop series Tuesday, April 12, as we consider the field of “sentiment analysis.” Can computers detect emotional valence in language? If so, how might these algorithmic techniques be used? We will discuss Matt Jockers’s (Nebraska) attempt to model plots of novels with sentiment analysis and practice using sentiment analysis ourselves. All are invited: no advanced computing experience is required.

Readings: Start with a brief blog post on Jockers’s application of sentiment analysis to plot detection: <http://www.matthewjockers.net/2015/02/02/syuzhet/>. If you have time, check out Jockers’s recent comparison of this kind of computational  analysis to human-coded versions here: <http://www.matthewjockers.net/2015/12/20/that-sentimental-feeling/>.  And for a taste of how algorithmic criticism can impose false assumptions on a text, see here: <http://www.matthewjockers.net/2015/04/06/epilogue/>

Questions? Dan Johnson, djohns27@nd.edu