How Dutch novels influence society and vice versa

24 October 2024 Research news item

Do fictional stories mirror social reality? Or is it the other way around, and does fiction create new realities? Radboud literature researcher Roel Smeets hopes to answer these questions with the help of computer-based analysis and a newly awarded Veni grant. “The power of stories cannot be underestimated.”

There is a debate among literary scholars worldwide: since its first appearance in the eighteenth century, has the novel become the ideal medium for bringing about social change? Literary scholars who adhere to this theory point, for example, to the emergence of civil rights and the abolition of slavery. “These are big claims to make,” says Smeets. “It is a common idea that novels can initiate social change. They allow you to empathise with characters for hundreds of pages, even if these characters are further removed from you. As a result, novels can give you new empathic insights and potentially create social movements. But do novels actually shape reality? Or do they merely reflect what is happening in society? Either way, exploring this question is incredibly valuable and interesting.”

Models and algorithms

Smeets’s research focuses on a specific social development in Dutch society: women's emancipation. He focuses on how novels from the late nineteenth century to today depicted and perhaps even encouraged that emancipation. “I do so by combining two dimensions,” he explains. “On the one hand, I focus on literary descriptions of gender through time. On the other hand, I look at the changing position of women in Dutch society.”

Smeets does this using computer-based analysis. He applies this analysis to hundreds of Dutch novels that have been digitised. “This means that I run various types of self-developed models and algorithms on the novels to filter out relevant aspects. I first focus on locating characters and finding out their gender. I then manually map out their occupation and demographic characteristics, as well as the language used around these characters, for example the adjectives used to describe them. I then turn each novel into a social network, showing how the characters relate to one another. This creates a picture of who among them has power and is influential.”

Variables and time periods

Together, this data allows Smeets to create an analysis for each novel. He explains that he then puts all the analyses side by side, and compares them based on various variables. “For example: are there differences between novels by male and female authors? It is also interesting to consider when the novel was written. I divided the novels into seven 30-year periods, covering the period from the late nineteenth century to the present.”

According to Smeets, each period contains approximately 150 to 300 novels representative of its time. “The first period, around the end of the nineteenth century, is just before the first feminist wave. There have been a total of four feminist waves throughout this time period: in the late nineteenth century, in the 1960s through the 1980s, in the 1990s and, according to some scholars, the fourth wave, which is happening right now. All four have been important for women's empowerment then and now. In this research study, I examine the extent to which descriptions of masculinity and femininity have changed over the course of this period, and how this relates to the four feminist waves. In the process, I focus only on parallels, and not on any potential causal links. Here is something that is important to understand: the power of stories cannot be underestimated.”

To help him carry out his research, Smeets has been awarded a Veni grant by the Dutch Research Council (NWO). This grant, reserved for excellent young researchers who recently completed their PhD, allows him to further develop his research ideas over the next four years. “It's a wonderful incentive. The fact that I was awarded a Veni grant means that people believe my research is important,” Smeets explains. “Ultimately, I want to translate my research findings into formats that will allow me to talk about the progressive or conservative nature of literature, in libraries and secondary schools, for example. In recent years, there have been such heated debates about representation and stereotyping in novels of the past. With the formats I plan to develop, I hope to pull conversations around this theme out of the polarised sphere. I believe that we can learn a lot from novels; they can help us to understand each other better, and to create a better world.”

Contact information

Organizational unit: Radboud Institute for Culture and History, Faculty of Arts
Theme: Diversity, History, Art & Culture