AustLit

'One reason critics have been arguing for a more empirical approach to Australian literary studies is that we have access to new and much broader kinds of data than ever before. Data, however, are of little use in and of themselves. The key question when approaching literary studies with empirical methods is how to move between the generalisations involved in empirical research and the attention to the particular that characterises literary analysis: in other words, how such data could be made useful to literary analysis? This chapter examines one such approach. Specifically, it uses a collaboration between Australian literary studies and statistical machine learning to suggest how, in practice, empirical modes of research can speak to, enhance, or even help to direct more traditional modes of literary analysis.' (223-224)