Quantitative Criticism

• Applicant: Privatdozent Dr. Toni Bernhart
• Subject Area: German Literary and Cultural Studies (Modern German Literature)
• Term: from 2014 to 2021
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 259167649

Quantitative Criticism studies refers to an approach in literary studies that employs methods of counting and measuring, as well as mathematical, statistical, empirical and computer-based methods in the analysis and interpretation of literary texts. So far, there has been no comprehensive systematic and diachronic research that investigates and documents the historical development of quantitative methods in German literary studies. This is surprising, given that quantitative methods have been employed in literary studies since the beginning of the nineteenth century and are of central interest to current debates in the context of the digital humanities.The aim of this project is 1) to reconstruct the historical development of quantitative methods in (German) literary studies, 2) to categorise and systematise quantitative methods in view of the respective problems and questions to which they have been applied, and 3) to locate them within the historical development of methods, disciplines and theories in German literature studies and literature studies of other languages.The project will begin with a historical overview and a closer look at three periods, during which quantitative methods flourished: the years around 1900, the period reaching from about 1950 to about 1980, and the recent development since the year 2000. This overview will set the stage for the main part of the investigation which will be guided by the following questions: Which problems were quantitative methods applied to at which times? What where the circumstances that favoured or hindered the application of quantitative methods? While the focus of the project will be on German literary studies, connections will be drawn to literary studies of other languages. This comparative approach will ensure that the results of the project rest on a well-founded historical and methodological basis, it will provide links to other philologies, and it will help to illuminate the theoretical and historical background of the digital humanities.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants