A multidimensional and digital humanistic analysis of style in Amy Tan’s novels

Abstract

Abstract The recent decades have witnessed substantial progress in stylistic research within digital humanities. Among others, Douglas Biber’s multidimensional model considers the full set of core lexico-grammatical features and counts as an efficient tool for identifying stylistic variations. As the representative of Chinese American literature, Amy Tan’s novels have been thoroughly explored as regards their representation of ethnic and cultural issues, while there is a scarcity of academic discussion on their stylistic uniqueness. In this context, the present study reflects on the stylistic differences among Tan’s six novels across Biber’s textual dimensions with the aid of MAT and R. The aim of this incorporation of data statistics and text analysis is two-fold. First, to delineate the stylistic variations among Tan’s novels along six main dimensions defined by Biber. Secondly, to determine whether there is a statistically significant correlation between any two dimensions in Tan’s novels. Previous multidimensional analysis-based stylistic research primarily starts and ends with the first step, while this study further investigates the possible correlations to better reveal Tan’s stylistic distinctions and avoid the loss of valuable information. This qualitative and quantitative comparison of stylistic variations demonstrates that computer-assisted methods can identify significant linguistic characteristics which literary critics might have ignored and eventually provide a more detailed interpretation of Tan’s works.