The ERC-funded MELT project will study the macroevolution of European literature, focusing on the overarching patterns of intertextual influences in literary fiction written in all major European languages between 1800 and 2000. This ambitious research project will draw on the HathiTrust digital library, an unprecedented resource comprising more than 10 million digitized books, combined with advanced computational text analysis methods and novel mathematical models of cultural evolution.
Charting the evolution of European literature
Led by Oleg Sobchuk, a researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, an interdisciplinary team of scholars specializing in computational humanities, data mining, and mathematical modeling will construct massive, dynamic networks that trace the history of literary works. These networks will capture thematic influences between authors, as well as the emergence, transformation, and decline of literary communities and genres across time and space. Sobchuk explains, "The MELT project will essentially build a gigantic 'map' of European literary history with geographic and temporal dimensions."
In parallel, the MELT team will simulate the evolution of books by creating artificial "authors" powered by large language models. These simulations will allow researchers to test the robustness of their network construction methods and gain new insights into the mechanisms behind literary innovation and influence. "These simulations are like a laboratory for culture," Sobchuk explains. "They allow us to explore how new ideas spread, how genres rise and fall, and what truly drives literary change across centuries."
Investigating literary history
By investigating literary history on an unprecedented scale with a powerful computer cluster, MELT aims to answer fundamental questions about literature, society, and politics. Literature often reflects the moods and aspirations of its time. What role does demographic turnover play in the evolution of literary topics? How do disruptive events, such as wars, pandemics, and revolutions, reshape the literary landscape? What propels certain books to become bestsellers and exert outsized influence? Do genres lose appeal through repetition alone?
"Literature occupies a central part of culture, shaping our identities and visions of the future. However, our understanding of its dynamics is limited," says Sobchuk. "My expertise in comparative literature, large-scale text mining, and mathematical modeling will allow me to lead a team that can answer these questions."
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Oleg Sobchuk studied literature at the Kyiv-Mohyla Academy in Ukraine. In 2018, he received a PhD in Comparative Literature from the University of Tartu, having conducted some of his research at the Stanford Literary Lab. His dissertation offered a new theoretical framework for the study of art history by combining the theory of cultural evolution with large-scale datasets of literature and the arts. He continued this line of work during his two postdoctoral positions at the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History in Jena and the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig.
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The European Research Council (ERC) has announced the award of 478 Starting Grants to young scientists and scholars across Europe. The funding, totaling €761 million, will support cutting-edge research in a variety of fields, including the life sciences, physics, social sciences, and humanities. The grants will enable early-career researchers to launch their own projects, build their teams and pursue their most promising ideas.
Contact:
Dr. Oleg Sobchuk
Department of Human Behavior, Ecology and Culture
Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig
oleg_sobchuk@[>>> Please remove the text! <<<]eva.mpg.de
Sandra Jacob
Press Officer
Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig
+49 341 3550-122
jacob@[>>> Please remove the text! <<<]eva.mpg.de