„Plot and Genre in Computational Literary Studies”

International conference at the Julius-Maximilians-University of Würzburg

„Plot and Genre in Computational Literary Studies”

Datum:

21.05.2026 bis 22.05.2026

Ort:

The conference will take place in the lecture hall on the ground floor (00.001) at the Center for Philology and Digitality (ZPD) of the JMU Würzburg, Emil-Hilb-Weg 23, Campus Nord: attendance will be in-person only. Dinner (for speakers & convenors) will be at a restaurant in town.

Attendance is free and open for everyone who is interested.

Please register until May 14 by sending an E-Mail to Barbara Gersitz at barbara.gersitzatuni-wuerzburg.de (barbara[dot]gersitz[at]uni-wuerzburg[dot]de).

Kategorie(n):

Tagung

Kontakt:

Prof. Dr. Christof Schöch

Weitere Infos:

conference article
Save the Date: On May 21–22, 2026 the international conference “Plot and Genre in Computational Literary Studies” will take place at the Center for Philology and Digitality (Zentrum für Philologie und Digitalität, ZPD) at the Julius-Maximilians-University of Würzburg.

Convenors
Katrin Dennerlein / Agnes Hilger / Leonard Konle / Julian Schröter / Christof Schöch / Thorsten Vitt

The conference explores how computational literary studies can model plot in ways that are comparable across methods and informative for genre analysis. Bringing together work on large-scale genre dynamics, narrative movement, segmentation, networks, space, names, and emotions, the event examines how narrative structure can be operationalized as a shared analytical object. The goal is to develop more robust models that connect narratological theory with empirical, data-driven genre research.

Program

Thursday, May 21, 2026

  • 12.15: Katrin Dennerlein / Agnes Hilger / Leonard Konle / Steffen Pielström / Julian Schröter / Christof Schöch / Thorsten Vitt: Introduction
  • 12.30: Evelyn Gius: Where to Cut the Story: Plot Analysis as a Segmentation Problem
  • 13.15: Ted Underwood: The Big Reveal: Using Spoilers to Model Surprise
  • 14.00: Katrin Dennerlein: Being Moved: Character Emotion as Indicator of Turning Points in Plot Progression
  • 14.45: Coffee Break
  • 15.15: Maciej Eder: Genre and Chronology Intertwined, or Urbanism vs. Regionalism in Brazilian Novels
  • 16.00: Simone Rebora: Operationalizing Plot Theory with Large Language Models: The Case of Affective Narratology
  • 16.45: Coffee Break
  • 17.15: Stephanie Catani / Christof Weiß: Plotting the frontier: Computational Methods in Analyzing the Western Genre
  • 18.00: Jan Rybicki: Tracing Genre and Style in Scholarly Writing: The Case of Fotis Jannidis
  • 19.30: Dinner

Friday, May 22, 2026

  • 09.00: Christof Schöch / Keli Du: Topic, Plot and Subgenre in a Collection of Contemporary French Novels
  • 09.45: Artjoms Šeļa: How Poetry Shifted Genre and Stopped Being a Song: Historical Change in the Form and Language of English Poems
  • 10.30: Coffee Break
  • 11.00: Julian Schröter: Agent-Based Plot Modeling for Literary Genres: First Thoughts
  • 11.45: Karina van Dalen-Oskam: Proper Names as a Reflection of Plot and Genre
  • 12.30: Fotis Jannidis / Leonard Konle / Julia Wunderle / Andreas Hotho: Character Profiles and Genre in German Dime Novel
  • 13.15: Closing Remarks
Themen: Computational Literary Studies, Methoden der Textanalyse