Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1899-05-25
EMOTIONAL CURVE IN LITERATURE
Novel studies Tint Have Won Fell
IOwship mt Columbia.
(New York SUM

(New York SUM-
A Nebraska graduate student at Column
bia University, Ernest Allen Gerard. has
developed the emotional curve OF literary
expression and plotted It out on chart.
He submitted thesis entitled Emotion
al Expression in Literature" embodying
his discovery I'm support OF his appiica-
ton for fellowship in psychology. and
the University Council awarded the fel-
lowshp TO him. The thesis contained
20 900 words, besides charts of curves. Mr..
Gerard was graduated at the University
of Nebraska with the A. u. degree In 1891,
and studied as graduate la 1Ssl-'s5 ana
1861 In 1866 he studied at the UNI
versity of Berlin and at Columbia he is
a candidate for the degree Phi. ID. AT the
University of Nebraska he was under
professor who is inclined to apply labora-
tory methods to the study Of literature
and literary production and since coming
here he has followed his professors bent
in that direction with the results given.
His method was to note carefully his
| own emotions while reading literary
| works. and then to study out just what
| passages caused the emotions. These pas
sages were then copied off. or cut out
until he had a large accumulation or
memoranda and clippings. He noted the
number of emotions and emotional Gle
ments for each 100 words in the various
works or by the several authors. lie
| grouped the clippings in different ways,
| as similarity either Of themselves or OF
the emotions they excited suggested, and
so eventually perceived what he calls the
| laws which govern the production Of emo
| tions by language, or the expression or
] emotions I'm written speech. The deduc-
| tons in his thesis represent the work OF
five years. He says in his introduction:
This work is the outcome Of a desire
| to find the elements used in expressing
ideas and emotions in literature; to learn
| how these elements are used, and TO sec
! IT, the elements serving as basis or val
uation, some method could not be devised
whereby the strength Of literary works
| could be measured. 1t was early
| noted that descriptive work used diff
| ferent elements than did narration or
! character interaction. This dis
covery Of the elements was extremely
| trying work, since one in seeking must
be ever on the alert, must know exactly
when the emotion comes to him, and mus
try to locate the exact part OF the pas
sage in which the effect was to be found
This necessitated a high degree of mental
and emotional sympathy with the worl
under consideration, together with
enough self-control and introspection 81
as to be able to judge without beinl
carried away by the work. Once the ele
ments were discovered. the laws gov
erning them began to appear one by one
THE value and use of the elements mas
been tested in other ways A very aero
speech by a southern senator deprived
of a very few adjectives became extreme
| Is pacific
| ne 1T tf+oror,, aIarnants ha saws. "Mar
receiving sensations from all his senses
at one time may unite them and repre-
sent the united sensations in one expires
| sion: or he may unite them with other
stored stimuli and produce an expression
resulting from hundreds Of stored stimuli
| Such an emotion would in literature fine
expression in a. discourse, while severa
sense impressions from the eye, ear, an'
finger combined would, perchance, pro
duce a noun or n verb; while each sens
impression might find expression in al
adjective or an adverb. 1t VIII o
noted that the strength Of the ordinar.
figure Of speech Is due to the fact tina
i'm it the condensation Of a larger who'll
into a smaller one IS strongly felt a YER
Z idea is put into an adjective, or para
graph idea is put into a verb. \ pro
verb is a condensed drama, a joke,
comedy I'm miniature Each para
graph was once a whole 1terar
work: each perfect word contains con
densed play. A dramatic momen
Is a larger whole than is paragraph
To show the emotion and emo
tional changes in a work OF literature
graphic curves have been made as FOL
lows Taking 100 words as a unit, hay
found the number of nouns, verbs
clauses, sentences, paragraphs, or dra
matte moments per 100 words.
These curves show US at glance III VIVA
part Of a work any one element domi
mates: thus one finds chat detectives an
nouns dominate in the beginning o
Marjorie DaW' while a. inc cnhaN %
!; the story the verbs greatly preponderatC
as again nouns predominant in the anti
climax"
Mr.. Gerard represents graphically, 1
, his thesis. by his turves, the emotiona
measurements of 'Pippa Passes" ga
mile" "Magda." Hamlet" Desdemona
. "Red Riding-Hood." and many othe
works and characters OF literature.