Interpreting Texts and Their Characters

Research in Digital Humanities calls for computational systems to document, compare, and analyze interpretations of cultural artifacts such as literary texts. These systems are intended to support scholars, critics, and students by facilitat- ing access to existing analyses of texts, identifying similarities and divergences be- tween interpretations, and more. We propose an approach for documenting interpre- tations of literary characters, grounded in the empirical practices of literary inter- pretation to align closely with experts’ methods. To achieve this, we remain neutral regarding the ontological status of characters, instead relying on formal approaches based on linguistics. We demonstrate how our approach can analyze relations be- tween names of fictional characters across texts and authors, bridging discussions in analytic philosophy about identity with the interests of literary scholars.