Publications

Publication details [#64014]

Culpeper, Jonathan, Mike Thelwall, Alison Findlay and Beth Cortese. 2018. Measuring emotional temperatures in Shakespeare’s drama. English Text Construction 11 (1) : 10–37.
Publication type
Article in journal
Publication language
English
Place, Publisher
John Benjamins
Journal DOI
10.1075/etc

Annotation

This paper demonstrates how the computational analysis of Shakespeare’s plays can map the emotional language used across individual plays and across the canon more broadly, affording new insights. It explains how it adapted the “sentiment analysis” tool SentiStrength for use with Early Modern English. The analyses allow to test out the long-held critical hypothesis that Shakespeare’s work moved from a comic to a “problem” and tragic period, and thence to a more optimistic redemptive mood in his last plays. The paper will also suggest how computational techniques can further understanding of genre, in particular the relationship between history and tragedy in Shakespeare’s work.