Traversing Narratives through Digital Pathways

HASTAC Dialogue 

Daria: My project analyzes the structure of trials in the Spanish Inquisition in the seventeenth century. I study how legal narratives form through witness testimony, voluntary and coerced under torture. As inquisitors sought to build cases against alleged heretics, they used various legal and rhetorical skills to make individuals look like heretics based on average activities. In the cases I study, conversos, or forced converts from Judaism to Catholicism, continued to be vulnerable targets for the inquisition because of their Jewish ancestry. Inquisitors could interpret every innocuous behavior as practicing Judaism, given the power of the inquisitor narrative. I plan to use digital humanities to disrupt these narratives.
 
 Questions for Daria:
1.Could you discuss how you are using Digital Humanities tools in your project?
Daria: I use R and Python for textual and sentiment analysis of Inquisition trials written in the seventeenth century. I am interested in studying how narratives are constructed by inquisitors and how DH tools can help trace how language changes in arrest warrants, witness testimony, and torture. The process of changes in legal accusations against alleged heretics is rarely studied in the field of the inquisition, as researchers often take for granted how language played a fundamental role in condemning individuals arrested by the inquisition.
Rimi: This work is absolutely fascinating in the way it uses digital tools not only for the purpose of digitization but also the analysis of the digitized texts in the context of the 17th century vis a vis the contemporary era. I believe you could also further your research on identifying special markers of coerced confessions using sentiment analysis.

2.	How does analyzing the Spanish Inquisition documents through Text analysis and Sentiment analysis tools differ from studying them manually?
Daria: Text analysis and sentiment analysis both look at texts on a whole scale. This means that I am able to look at the Inquisition trial as a whole and find patterns in cases that tend to be over 100 pages. DH allows for comparisons between trials on a much larger scale than reading each trial manually. I can follow certain accusations that reappear or find patterns in interrogations that may be overlooked as I read materials manually. Still, a close reading is imperative to interpreting these trials. As I focus on conversos, or forced converts from Judaism to Catholicism, I can identify keywords such as candles, pork, olive oil, or clean clothes that sentiment analysis will not pick up as words with a connotation of heresy as inquisitors would read these words. This has to do with how inquisitors would take normal activities conversos engaged in and argue that they did this to worship Judaism, from lighting candles on Friday night, abstaining from pork, cooking with olive oil instead of lard, or wearing clean clothes on Saturday in honor of the Sabbath. These interpretations need to be aligned with the dictionaries in sentiment analysis to coordinate with a historical reading of its meaning in Inquisition trials.
Rimi: Creating the corpus for the sentiment analysis is a humongous work in itself. This research is crucial for understanding the nature of coerced confessions in the inquisition trials. I am really happy to see that you have undertaken this work. 

Questions for Rimi:
1.	How has Digital Humanities (DH) changed how you conduct research on narratives?
Rimi: In my research DH has been instrumental in transforming the idea of narratives. I commonly refer to born-digital materials on social media platforms. Traditional methods of studying narratives no longer suffice in discussing the newer forms of texts and narratives influenced by new media. DH has allowed me to analyze social media narratives through an interdisciplinary perspective combining humanities and computer technology. The use of Text Analysis Tools and sentiment Analysis tools has been critical in changing the perception of a narrative. 
My PhD research concentrates on studying Facebook as Autofiction in the Indian context. One of the essential areas I am focusing on is algorithmic culture and its role in constructing personal narratives on Facebook. The interaction of the digital space with lived experiences and the overlap of print culture and digital culture greatly impact my understanding of Facebook narratives.
Daria: I love how you balance interactions between an author’s creation of autofiction and the algorithmic adjustments that Facebook makes to these stories. It’s fascinating to think about how a close reading can no longer work single-handedly to analyze these materials. Now as print culture combines with digital culture, as literary scholars, it is necessary to incorporate a digital humanities component to study how computer technology affects narratives and challenges the tools with which we usually research narratives. 
2. What are some complications you have had in using DH in your research?
Rimi: One of the major obstacles I have faced while using DH in my research is data collection. Facebook does not allow data extraction due to privacy issues. As a result, I have to collect data individually and acquire permission to use it. I use Snowball sampling to collect data. However, this does not provide representative data. Therefore I believe a different methodological approach is required to study born-digital materials within the purview of Digital Humanities.
Daria: Having to overcome privacy issues is a critical problem a lot of scholars of modern technology encounter. As I study the early modern era, I can access and analyze materials easily. However, in your case, finding representative data is contingent on whose permission you receive to use their materials. I wonder if you could survey who or which materials are most likely to receive permission for your studies and what types of patterns you can find in which content you are most likely to use in your research. This could turn an obstacle into an interesting subsection of your research!