In Search of the Lost Author: A Stylometric Analysis of 185 RomanianNovels Published Between 1850-1950
Creators: name: Pascariu, Lucretia
name: Olteanu, Alexandra
name: Patras, Roxana
name: Ionescu, Oana
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2023

description: The present study relies on novel research methods that are specific to Computational Literary Studies, particularly on the stylometric analysis of a collection of novels by using the StyloR package. Through this proposal, we aim to open new research perspectives centered on the quantitative approach to literary texts. Such an approach involves selecting appropriate methods for research hypotheses on one hand, and evaluating the "specificity" of the analyzed material on the other. Among other functionalities, the StyloR package allows for the assessment of cases of unattributed authorship. Providing a homogeneous corpus (in terms of text size, genre, period, author gender, and the number of texts attributed to a single author), stylometry has proven to yield remarkable results (Juola 2015). Building on the stylometric principles articulated by the Polish philosopher Wincenty Lutosławski as early as the 19th century, subsequently implemented in tools such as StyloR, this research endeavor seeks to identify and attribute the literary authorship to several anonymous texts included in the Romanian collection of the multilingual literary corpus ELTeC and in other 2 literary corpora (Hai-Ro and Pop-Lite). Among the 11 texts, two represent cases of uncertain authorship, which have thus far been discussed and attributed solely based on specific deductions from historical investigation (Bălăeț 1982). Through the application of stylometric analysis, we aim to either confirm or refute a hypothesis already formulated within the framework of literary history (typically based on contextualization). In the first stage of our exploration, we anonymized the targeted texts/authors, specifically, renaming the two novels and assigning a codename ("Rica Venturiano") to the novelist to generate a visualization of stylistic affinities (or distances) among all the novels in the collection: 187 texts included in three corpora developed within the Digital Humanities Laboratory (ELTeC, Hai-Ro, Pop-Lite). In the second stage, we calibrated the analysis by modifying parameters available in the StyloR package, such as the "number of iterations", sampling, and comparing sequences of a specific length (e.g., 1000 words) or reorganizing the material by creating microcollections based on chronology (works from the same period) or the stylistic elements of more prolific authors. In the third stage, we discuss the results of our experiments and the possibility of validating the authorship of the texts under consideration. In the third stage, namely that of results, our aim is to focus on the research questions.
 For this reason, the outcomes of the StyloR analysis will encompass the following:
 - Extracting the anonymous hajduk texts (6 out of 12) into a hajduk sub-corpus to discern the affiliations or disparities among the texts, considering the productive poles of the subgenre (N.D. Popescu, Panait Macri, Ilie Ighel). 
- Investigating the case of uncertain literary paternity by individually tracing the two texts within a sub-corpus of texts published between 1850 and 1880. 
- Conducting a separate analysis of the remaining anonymous texts by creating microcorpora/micro-collections based on word count (long texts over 60,000 words, medium texts ranging from 20,000 to 60,000 words, short texts under 20,000 words).
description: This work was supported by a grant of the Romanian Ministry of Education and Research, CNCS - UEFISCDI, project number PN-III-P1-1.1-TE-2019-0127, within PNCDI III.