Visualizations and Analysis

This Cirrus visualization depicts Pahor's most-frequently used words across all five short stories. Larger words indicate more frequent usage, while smaller words indicate less frequent usage. Hovering over each word will reveal how many times it was used. The amount of words included can be adjusted using the "Terms" bar. Note that this visualization, along with all others, was produced in conjunction with a stoplist of less-revealing words to be excluded (e.g. "he," "the," "an") in order to more efficiently analyze his work. As seen above, the words "like" and "as" are most frequently used, indicating his high usage of similes and metaphors, which he employs to convey intense experiences to a distant reader. Body parts are also common -- "eyes," "body," "bodies," "hair," "hands," and "head" all appear on the visualization. As more lengthily explained in the Narrative section, this reflects Pahor's use of corporeal experiences as a vehicle for helping his characters process reality. Marks of time also appear, including "night," "morning," and "time" itself. Finally, environments are frequently described -- such as "sea," "world," "door," and "wall." This visualization is highly useful in identifying Pahor's most-highlighted ideas across the entire text, but is limited in that it does not define how frequently these words were used by text. Read more about these findings' relevance in the Narrative section.

This Trends visualization lends more detail to the frequency of certain chosen words than the Cirrus visualization by separating the corpus by short story. Each word corresponds to a unique color. Due to the high frequency of body-part words used, the researcher chose to select those words to compare. The asterisks denote that plurals of words are included; for example "mouth*" includes both "mouth" and "mouths." Interestingly, most words were used in all of them in some capacity, displaying Pahor's affinity for describing the corporeal. However, there are some noteworthy findings. Pahor referenced "eyes" significantly more in The Butterfly on the Coat Rack than in any other text; unsurprising, given his emphasis on the innocent eyes of children. Additionally, "body" was used in every story except for The Persimmons. This could be because all other texts directly address dehumanization and violence, while The Persimmons approaches marginalization more subtly. Read more about these findings' relevance in the Narrative section.

These Context visualizations provide highly efficient analysis of Pahor's use of simile throughout all texts. They list every mention of "like" and "as" as well as a select few words on either side. They can be adjusted to include more or less of the context for each use of the word using the "context" scale. Unfortunately, there is no way to filter between which uses of "like" and "as" are within similes versus those in other contexts, but it certainly does include them all. Scrolling through provides further insight. For example, exploring the "like" list immediately reveals the prevalence of animal analogies, such as "watchdog," "moles," and "butterfly." It also reveals frequent comparisons to forces of nature, including "a flood," "a storm," and "an immense avalanche." In a world so unnaturally cruel with increasingly mechanized means of inflicting harm, these analogies provide a strong juxaposition. Read more about these findings' relevance in the Narrative section.