The multi-dimensional concordance: A new tool for literary research

Abstract

This paper describes the use of correspondence analysis to create the “space” of a book, constructs that of Kierkegaard'sFear and Trembling as an illustration, and distinguishes three separate contexts of some of its most important words: thespatial context (where the search word lies in that named and ordered space); theoverall context (the x words closest to the search word in multi-dimensional space); and the “role/sense” context (the words associated with the search word in each of its most important roles, some of which may represent new senses.) It describes the identification of these contexts, discusses their importance and concludes by noting certain respects in which the procedure might perhaps be improved.