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Dissertation Information for Clare Beghtol

NAME:
- Clare Beghtol
- (Alias) Clare Lawton Beghtol

DEGREE:
- Ph.D.

DISCIPLINE:
- Library and Information Science

SCHOOL:
- University of Toronto (Canada) (1991)

ADVISORS:
- None

COMMITTEE MEMBERS:
- None

MPACT Status: Incomplete - Inspected

Title: The Classification of Fiction: The Development of a System Based on Theoretical Principles

Abstract: This thesis assumes that established and experimental semantic and syntactic subject analysis techniques can be brought to bear on analyzing fiction documents for the purposes of information retrieval. The thesis: (1) analyzes standard methods of classifying fiction; (2) reviews previous fiction classification theories and systems and uses the systems to classify a novel; (3) analyzes "fictional warrant", attempts to analyze "critical warrant", and identifies special problems that arise from identification of anomalous, fuzzy and/or ambiguous data in fiction; (4) develops a theoretical framework for fiction analysis containing four fiction-specific major data elements ("Characters", "Events", "Spaces" and "Times") and one general data element ("Other"); (5) develops a model for an experimental online fiction analysis system (EFAS) based on the theoretical framework and containing techniques for handling anomalus, fuzzy, and/or ambiguous fictional data; and (6) applies EFAS to 9 novels that were used as examples of novels containing anomalous, uncertain and/or ambiguous data and to the 10 novels that most recently won the Canadian Governor General's Literary Award for Fiction.

EFAS assumes that data in fiction can be assumed to be "true" for the purposes of information retrieval; that each work of fiction can be treated as a self-contained information system; and that readers share world knowledge to an extent that would enable classifiers to produce reasonably consistent analyses of fiction. It uses retroactive notation and interpolations of notational and verbal expressions from standard subject analysis and cataloguing tools (Dewey Decimal Classification, Universal Decimal Classification, Library of Congress Subject Headings and Anglo-American Cataloguing Rules). It contains three tables of auxiliary notation that (1) signal ambiguous or non-classifiable data; (2) state relationships between different data elements in the same major category; and (3) state relationships between data elements in different major categories. Preliminary evaluation revealed that EFAS warrants further investigation, and some areas of research are suggested.

MPACT Scores for Clare Beghtol

A = 1
C = 1
A+C = 2
T = 1
G = 1
W = 1
TD = 1
TA = 0
calculated 2008-01-31 06:30:19

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