Abstract
We explore through the lens of distant reading the evolution of discourse on Jews in France during the XIX century. We analyze a large textual corpus including heterogeneous sources—literary works, periodicals, songs, essays, historical narratives—to trace how Jews are associated to different semantic domains, and how such associations shift over time. Our analysis deals with three key aspects of such changes: the overall transformation of embedding spaces, the trajectories of word associations, and the comparative projection of different religious groups over different, historically relevant semantic dimensions or streams of discourse. This allows to show changes in the association between words and semantic domains (referring e.g. to economic and moral behaviors), the evolution of stereotypes, and the dynamics of bias over a long time span characterized by major historical transformations. We suggest that the analysis of large textual corpora can be fruitfully used in a dialogue with more traditional close reading approaches—by pointing to opportunities of in-depth analyses that mobilize more qualitative approaches and a detailed inspection of the sources that distant reading inevitably tends to aggregate. We offer a short example of such a dialogue between different approaches in our discussion of the Second Empire transformations, where we mobilize the historian’s tools to start disentangling the complex interactions between changes in French society, the nature of sources, and representations of Jews. While our example is limited in scope, we foresee large potential payoffs in the cooperative interaction between distant and close reading.
Highlights
The analysis of long-term changes in culture, and how they affect patterns of conflict and integration in society, has found new opportunities with the advent of large digital collections of textual data (Garg et al, 2018; Kozlowski et al, 2019).In this paper, we address a largely debated issue in the history of religious, cultural, and political conflict: the rise of the “Jewish question” in modern France after 1789 and the birth of modern antisemitism during the long 19th century1 up to the First world war
In this paper we have explored through the lens of distant and close reading a longstanding historiographical issue, the evolution of discourse on Jews in France during the XIX century as a historical case for the study of documents relating to religious, cultural, economic, social conflicts and opinion dynamics
We have analyzed a large textual corpus including heterogeneous sources - literary works, periodicals, essays, historical narratives, political treatises, pamphlets - to trace how Jews are associated to different semantic domains, which we have called streams of bias, and how such associations shift over time
Summary
The analysis of long-term changes in culture, and how they affect patterns of conflict and integration in society, has found new opportunities with the advent of large digital collections of textual data (Garg et al, 2018; Kozlowski et al, 2019). A previous analysis based on the ARTFL Project (American Research Treasury of French Literature) database had limited itself to note the relevant frequency of references to Jews (Juif, Juifs, Juive, Juives) in the pre-revolutionary and revolutionary literature, without an actual further characterization of such references (Schechter, 2003). Analyses over such a long period of time are rich of methodological challenges—how to make embedding spaces comparable over time, how to trace the evolution of “meaning”, how to detect discontinuities in discourse, or how to manage the heterogeneity of sources. We try to show that distant reading generates indicators and suggestions for further opportunities for qualitative historical research approaches by investigating in depth specific historical periods often under-explored or previously not consider
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
