Studying Literature by the Numbers

Stanford's Franco Moretti has some interesting ideas about Studying Literature by the Numbers but contrary to the New York Times article, this is not new space age science and it's not going to replace other approaches . . . it's just one of many methodologies for understanding more about literature. It doesn't tell us everything and it doesn't fit the unifying theory of literary studies. It's nifty and neat and works. It can bring insights and ah-ha's but it's not objective science. Literature can't be reduced down into simple numbers and bar graphs and pie charts. These things may tell us some useful things, but they don't explore the soul of a piece. Of course, interpretative approaches that do pretend to explore the soul of a piece aren't really doing that either, they're fitting a soul into a piece so they can better understand the aspects of the piece they're most interested in. There is no Grand Unifying Theory of Literary Criticism mainly because such a principle is impossible. Literature and literary criticism by their very natures must from the get-go and thereafter remain wholely and completely subjective . . . even when we pretend they're not. As I tell my graduate students in literary theory, "this is all a game, we pick which variation we want to play and then we go for it but in the end it's still a wonderful game, it's not the truth, it's not reality, it's interpretation, and enjoy the moment and the game of it."

In my opinion, of course.