Description
Book SynopsisHoyt Long offers both a reinterpretation of modern Japanese literature through computational methods and an introduction to the history, theory, and practice of looking at literature through numbers. He weaves explanations of these methods and their application together with reflection on the kinds of reasoning such methodologies facilitate.
Trade Review[Long] is a leader in the melding of quantitative analytics and established methods of close reading to produce new understandings of corpus and canon . . . [this is] a truly pathbreaking book, one that at last brings the field of modern Japanese literary studies into ongoing methodological conversations that are rippling through the humanities. * Journal of Asian Studies *
A deft reflection on disciplinary practice, history, and identity,
The Values in Numbers is a thought-provoking application of computation to study concepts like genre, voice, and race set in a fascinating non-Western transnational context. This book sets a new standard for the field—a must read. -- Andrew Piper, author of
Enumerations: Data and Literary StudyLucid, eloquent, and scrupulously measured in its claims,
The Values in Numbers offers a fascinating tour of the history and present state of computational approaches to literary research, and does so through case studies that are themselves rich, persuasive, and often surprising. I know I won't be alone in saying that I've been waiting for this book for years. -- Michael Emmerich, author of
The Tale of Genji: Translation, Canonization, and World LiteratureThe Values in Numbers is a major intervention in transnational literary studies and in methodological reflection and innovation in digital humanities. Long convincingly shows that the values associated with literary traditions and disciplines do not have to be in tension with numbers and can be embodied by them. -- Katherine Bode, author of
A World of Fiction: Digital Collections and the Future of Literary HistoryLong’s pioneering book argues that the value
in numbers is also the value
of numbers. His superb analysis of post-Meiji Japanese narratives recovers century-old practices when quantitative methods helped to understand emerging literary forms. The result is an urgent call to review the many disciplinary worlds that constitute world literature. -- Priya Joshi, author of
In Another Country: Colonialism, Culture, and the English Novel in IndiaUncovering a history of Japanese writers and critics since Sōseki who turned to quantitative methods to get past Eurocentric hierarchies of literary value, Hoyt Long shows the value in numbers for literary study. Both a toolkit of statistical techniques for analyzing literary texts and a critical genealogy of those same techniques, this is digital humanities at its best. -- J. Keith Vincent, author of
Two-Timing Modernity: Homosocial Narrative in Modern Japanese FictionRecommended. * Choice Reviews *
There is no question that Long is the right person to do this work, as well as no question that all of us working on Japan who wish to speak to the issue of quantitative methods in literary analysis need to read this book and grapple with its claims. * The Journal of Japanese Studies *
As both meticulous explanation and demonstration of Long’s methods,
The Value in Numbers is a unique, valuable resource that ignites crucial self-reflection on long-held assumptions and inherited practices, while also providing blueprints for possible solutions and pathways forward. * H-Sci-Med-Tech *
This is a pioneering work in the study of Japanese literature. While introducing new methods, Long connects his intervention to the conventional literary criticism. This is a bold and learned intervention and it deserves the widest possible audience. * East Asian Publishing and Society *
Table of ContentsIntroduction: Uncertainty in Numbers
1. Facts and Difference
2. Archive and Sample
3. Genre and Repetition
4. Influence and Judgment
5. Discourse and Character
Epilogue: Difference in Numbers
Appendix
Acknowledgments
Notes
Works Cited
Index
