What question did this study set out to answer?

The central aim is to critique the effectiveness of sentiment analysis tools within literary studies, identifying theoretical and computational challenges.

March 22, 2026Open Access

Sentiment Analysis in Literary Studies. A Critical Survey

Key Points

The central aim is to critique the effectiveness of sentiment analysis tools within literary studies, identifying theoretical and computational challenges.
Discusses possible applications of sentiment analysis in narratology and reader response.
Presents a taxonomy categorizing sentiment analysis tools based on emotion theory, resource-building methods, and analysis techniques.
Surveys six representative sentiment analysis tools used in literary studies.
Identifies gaps between literary theories and the computational models used in sentiment analysis.
Proposes solutions to address the identified gaps.
Classifies sentiment analysis tools according to their foundational theories and approaches.

Abstract

The article sets up a critique of Sentiment Analysis (SA) tools in literary studies, both from a theoretical and a computational point of view. In the first section, a possible use of SA in narratology and reader response studies is discussed, highlighting the gaps between literary theories and computational models, and suggesting possible solutions to fill them. In the second section, a stratified taxonomy of SA tools is proposed, which distinguishes: (1) the emotion theory adopted by the tool; (2) the method used to build the emotion resources; (3) the technique adopted to accomplish the analysis. A critical survey of six representative SA tools for literary studies (Syuzhet, Vader, SentiArt, SEANCE, Stanford SA, and Transformers Pipelines) closes the article.

AI से पूछें

Bookmark

View Full Paper