A macroscopic view of Greek interwar poetry through Voyant tools

<ns3:p> Background This paper explores the application of digital humanities tools and methodologies to verify, qualify and extend the findings of traditional (close reading) literary criticism about Greek interwar poetry from a quantitative viewpoint. Method The research uses Voyant Tools ( <ns3:ext-link xmlns:ns4="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" ext-link-type="uri" ns4:href="http://voyant-tools.org">http://voyant-tools.org</ns3:ext-link> ), an open access, web-based text analysis environment to examine a corpus of over 600 poems by eight Greek interwar poets—namely, Karyotakis, Polydouri, Lapathiotis, Agras, Giofyllis, Filyras, Ouranis, and Papanikolaou—, both as a whole and through comparison among the poets. It uses word frequencies (WF), visualizations, as well as an analysis of collocates and contexts (CA) of frequent and/or significant words; it also discusses vocabulary density (VD) and average words per sentence (AWpS). Results "Soul," "heart" and "eyes" rank highly in WF revealing the lyrical character of these post-symbolist works. Their melancholic mood is shown through the predominance of autumn and winter over spring and summer, as well as the outnumbering of night settings over daytime scenes. CA reveals that the melancholic mood is enhanced through the negation of positive terms, such as joy and light. The analysis of other thematic axes through WF and CA shows poetry presented not as high art but as lyrical expression, as well as the prominence of small-scale urban settings and enclosed spaces. WF and CA also uncovers individual differences between poets (e.g. Polydouri's emphasis on heart and love, Karyotakis's preoccupation with observation and gaze, as well as a characteristic discrepancy in his use of ‘I’ and ‘you’, Filyras's traditional use of simile, and Papanikolaou's modernist tendencies). VD and AWpS further highlight the poets’ respective styles. Conclusions The findings provide quantitative support for existing literary criticism and offer some new insights into both the shared characteristics and distinctive features of Greek interwar poets. </ns3:p>