Producing Visualizations of Elements in Works of Literature

摘要

A visualization of literary elements of a work of literature, such as a novel or short story, is generated from meta-data records representing a digital work of literature including literary elements (humor, drama, adventure, etc.), characters, and plot devices related to a position within the work of literature where each appears. A significance level is determined for each of the elements, characters and plot devices at each position within the work of literature, and these are plotted into a sequential graph having position (e.g. timeline) axis and a significance level axis. The sequential graph is then output for printing or display. Human-generated and machine-generated meta-data may be ingested equally well by the method. Colors, line thickness, and a broken line patterns may be employed for greater visual meaning. And, the sequential graph may be annotated according to segments (e.g. chapters, sections) and dominant genre within each segment.

主权项

1. A method for visualizing literary elements as a graph comprising:
receiving, by a computer system, a set of meta-data records representing the contents of an existing digital work of literature, wherein each meta-data record comprises a significance value for a literary element and a relationship of the literary element to one or more items selected from the group consisting of a character, and a literary plot device, and a position where the literary element occurs within a literary plot of the work of literature; graphing, by a computer system, the literary elements, characters and plot devices in a sequential graph having a first axis corresponding to a progression of the literary plot within the work of literature, a second axis orthogonal to the first axis corresponds to significance level, and a plurality of points located within the sequential graph as a function of the occurrence position and significance level for each literary element; and rendering, by a computer system, the sequential graph to an output of the computer system.