Modeling Conflict: Representations of Social Groups in Present-Day Dutch Literature

TY - JOUR

T1 - Modeling Conflict

T2 - Representations of Social Groups in Present-Day Dutch Literature

AU - Smeets, Roel

AU - De Pourcq, Maarten

AU - van den Bosch, A.

PY - 2021/6/10

Y1 - 2021/6/10

N2 - This essay responds to a lack of scholarly attention for conflict as a narrative mechanism since the formalist models of Vladimir Propp and Algirdas Julien Greimas. Building on recent developments within cultural analytics, the essay argues for a new understanding of narrative conflict by integrating classic narratological models with data-driven, statistical methods. It does so by (a) proposing two computational models of conflict based on theoretical insights from narratology, conflict studies, and network theory, (b) applying those models to a sample corpus of 170 present-day Dutch novels, and (c) briefly illustrating the narratological value of the results by interpreting the representation of social groups in two novels from the corpus – Bart Koubaa’s De Brooklynclub (2012) and Leon de Winter’s VSV (2012) – in light of the statistical patterns found for the corpus as a whole. The analyses of dyadic (two characters) and triadic (three characters) conflict leads to two central conclusions: 1) lower educated characters are more dominant in dyadic conflicts and 2) the majority of triadic conflicts exist in a state of social balance.

AB - This essay responds to a lack of scholarly attention for conflict as a narrative mechanism since the formalist models of Vladimir Propp and Algirdas Julien Greimas. Building on recent developments within cultural analytics, the essay argues for a new understanding of narrative conflict by integrating classic narratological models with data-driven, statistical methods. It does so by (a) proposing two computational models of conflict based on theoretical insights from narratology, conflict studies, and network theory, (b) applying those models to a sample corpus of 170 present-day Dutch novels, and (c) briefly illustrating the narratological value of the results by interpreting the representation of social groups in two novels from the corpus – Bart Koubaa’s De Brooklynclub (2012) and Leon de Winter’s VSV (2012) – in light of the statistical patterns found for the corpus as a whole. The analyses of dyadic (two characters) and triadic (three characters) conflict leads to two central conclusions: 1) lower educated characters are more dominant in dyadic conflicts and 2) the majority of triadic conflicts exist in a state of social balance.

KW - social network analysis

KW - Dutch literature

KW - conflict

KW - narratology

KW - literary characters

U2 - 10.22148/001c.24722

DO - 10.22148/001c.24722

M3 - Article

SN - 2371-4549

VL - 6

SP - 1

EP - 31

JO - Journal of Cultural Analytics

JF - Journal of Cultural Analytics

ER -