Mapping techno-literary spaces: adapting multiple correspondence analysis for literature and art informatics

Introduction.This paper constitutes part of a series of studies intended to establish "Literature and Art Informatics". The paper describes the conceptual background of multiple correspondence analysis and its use in visualizing conceptual spaces to describe the values that motivate the use of information technology by literary authors. An examination of artistic use of technology builds on past work applying multiple correspondence analysis to the study of art and literature that did not specifically look at technology use. Method. The methods described in this paper are predominantly quantitative and incorporate data from interviews conducted with literary authors. The paper takes an intermediate approach, mediating between pure methodological papers on one hand, and, on the other hand, topical papers that provide a highly abbreviated description of the method described here. Analysis. The paper includes both quantitative analysis, which describes the conceptual background for using and interpreting multiple correspondence analysis, as well as qualitative analysis of the use of the technique in the context of a study of information technology use by literary authors. The analysis centres on the conceptual background of the technique and how it can provide useful interpretative tools for "Literature and Art Informatics". Results. Multiple correspondence analysis allowed the construction of conceptual spaces that aided interpretation of technolgoy use by literary authors. Its use reinforced the qualitative findings from an earlier article that writers who make higher use of technolgoy do so in a way that reflects an intensification of the avant-garde-ism that typifies American literary writing. Conclusions. Multiple correspondence analysis provides useful interpretative tools that can further our understanding of the conceptual context in which information technology use by literary authors occurs. Abstract