The Digital Humanities as Computational Criticism
Chinese Journal of Literary Criticism
No.2, 2022
The Digital Humanities as Computational Criticism
(Abstract)
Zhao Wei
Computational criticism is a process of knowledge representation and textual interpretation based on data and computational modeling. It targets the conceptual field as a social practice, premised on interpretable tools, and emphasizes the significance of models in the process of thinking and reasoning. In the interpretive cycle of “data→model→interpretation→theory→data→...” humanities scholars start from their own domain knowledge and interpretive experience, and activate the “self-reflexivity” of the tools through clever experimental design arguments, with the aim of breaking the black box of the algorithm and discovering the production logic behind the text, so that the “human” dimension can reappear in the digital age.