Traversing Emotional Landscapes and Linguistic Patterns in Bernard-Marie Koltès' Plays: An NLP Perspective
Arezou Zahiri Pourzarandi, Farshad Jafari
TL;DR
Bernard-Marie Koltès' plays present intricate linguistic textures and emotionally charged dialogues that challenge traditional literary analysis. The authors apply a multi-step NLP pipeline—OCR text extraction, 150-word segmentation, linguistic profiling, sentiment and emotion detection, and segment-wise aggregation—to quantify vocabulary patterns, emotional trajectories, and dramatic tension across three major works. They report distinct patterns: high vocabulary diversity in Dans la Solitude des Champs de Coton, a monologic yet emotionally intense La Nuit Juste Avant les Forêts, and a dialogue-driven Combat de Nègre et de Chiens, with corresponding shifts in anger, sadness, and fear. The study demonstrates a replicable framework for digital humanities in drama, offering novel, data-driven insights into Koltès' dramaturgy and providing a basis for cross-text comparisons, with code available at the project repository.
Abstract
This study employs Natural Language Processing (NLP) to analyze the intricate linguistic and emotional dimensions within the plays of Bernard-Marie Koltès, a central figure in contemporary French theatre. By integrating advanced computational techniques, we dissect Koltès' narrative style, revealing the subtle interplay between language and emotion across his dramatic oeuvre. Our findings highlight how Koltès crafts his narratives, enriching our understanding of his thematic explorations and contributing to the broader field of digital humanities in literary analysis.