Measuring moments: Annotating and quantifying narrative time disruptions in modernist and hypertext fiction

This project outlines a new method of annotating and quantitatively discussing narrative techniques related to time in fiction. Its principal research questions are, firstly, to determine whether a valid and useful system of encoding narrative characteristics related to time in fiction can be developed, and secondly, how the narratives thus encoded can be quantitatively analysed, using modernist and hypertext fiction as case studies. The annotated techniques are analepsis, prolepsis (flashbacks and flashes-forward in story time respectively), narrative levels (stories within stories), stream of consciousness (narration focalised and narrated by a character), and free indirect discourse (narration focalised by a character, but narrated by another entity). By counting the frequency and proportionality of the usage of these techniques, the narrative characteristics of different works from different time periods and genres can be compared. The encoding involves adding tags to text using a markup language, in this case XML with custom tags created for this project. The project combines methods from English literary studies and digital humanities. The results show that analepsis and prolepsis occur more frequently in the hypertexts than in the modernist novels, but there is greater similarity across the whole corpus in the proportions of words spent in analepsis. Seven of the thirteen texts are very similar in their proportion of words spent in the past; they use narrative time disruptions similarly. Between many of the texts there are similarities in the reasons for the disruptive narrative strategies, with representations of subjective experiences of memory requiring the usage of analepsis, which is shown by its frequency and proportion. The process of annotation also enriches the close readings of the primary texts. The annotation itself, as well as the data gleaned from it, is useful and fulfils its aim of adding depth to the analysis of time in these fictions.2025-08-2