A Computer-Aided Analysis of Style and Change in 39 Years of Benito Pérez Galdós's Narrative

Abstract

loses sight of details in the discrete works that could not otherwise appreciate. compose the whole. As Gull6n acknowledges: This article reports on computer-aided analy- A lo largo de su obra, se registra un progreso, y sis of selected textual features in the 27 narrative procur6 esbozarlo en otros cap(tulos; ahora novels of Gald6s published over a period of 39 (1966) no es posible estudiar su tdcnica con years, from 1870 to 1909. The stylistic features I referencia a cada novela por separado (236). chose for computer analysis are certain charac- Much criticism of Gald6s's work has focused teristics of quotations, sentences, segments, and on thematic, philosophical, and aesthetic evolu- words. They represent what might be called tion. Following Joaqufn Casalduero's all en- stylistic structure, since they are largely compassing vision (Percival 236), critics tend unconscious habits. They are also capable of to classify Gald6s's novels into the Early or being quantitatively computed and visually plot- Abstract Period (1870- 1881) and Contempo- ted and can reveal similarities and differences rary Series (1881-1909), with five concurrent among the novels in a completely objective series of historical Episodios Nacionales (1873- fashion. Continuity and stability would indicate 19 12), based on content and to a lesser degree on basic characteristics of Gald6s ' s writing, while setting. The early novels are highly symbolical, alterations in habits of expression might signal the succeeding contemporary novels are set changes that extend beyond style to theme, aes- largely in Madrid, and the historical novels re- thetics, and philosophy. As we shall see, the deep create major episodes of Spain's nineteenth cen- stylistic features are important ones because they tury. Casalduero also classified Gald6s's affect dramatic impact, pace, animation, and development in terms of changes in literary phi- ease of reading. losophy, from abstractionism to realism, natural- The tables, lists, and plots included here are ism, and spiritualism, a scheme that has largely intended to provide scholars with data for refer- guided subsequent criticism, which has diverse- ence.2 They offer a global view of the corpus and ly cited new directions in La desheredada and at the same time allow one to examine and Fortunata y Jacinta (Pattison), in Lafamilia de compare separate data for the individual texts. Le6n Roch and after Miau (Brenan), and in so- This is in a way similar to Stephen Gilman's cio-literary stages (Miller). intertextual approach that seeks relationships One may ask whether such alterations in among Gald6s's works, except that the compari- content, setting, and literary temper were also son here is solely of style and the approach is that accompanied by changes in style.' As Joseph T. of the developing discipline of stylometrics. Jaynes states in A Search for Trends in the Poetic Style of W. B. Yeats, poets and their The Corpus styles must evolve, must constantly transform themselves to conform to a changing world, or The corpus contains 27 block samples of face artistic death (11). It is likely that this was Gald6s's narrative novels whose initial pages the case with Gald6s. The problem in tracing were selected from random number tables. It