Preface: Data-Driven Formalism
Résumé
Introductory article to the translation of three works on the formal statistical analysis of literature: B.I. Yarkho, M.I. Shapira and M.L. Gasparov. The article provides an overview of the tradition of Moscow quantitative literary criticism, traces the creative relationship between the three main representatives of this method, describes the main similarities and differences in their work with literary material, their scientific style, the way and goals of using statistics in their research. An attempt is made to define the specifics of Yarkho's method in the context of contemporary trends in formal literary criticism. The article draws attention to those features of the published works that make their issues relevant to modern digital humanities. The task of the entire collection is not only to acquaint the English-speaking reader with a certain part of the Russian literary theory, but also to present it as the direct predecessor of digital humanities. The problems posed decades ago, now have to be solved with the help of new methods.