ABSTRACT
Approaching Moore’s poetic oeuvre through the lens of computational stylistic analysis, the final chapter poses two related questions. First, what effect does the generic diversity of Moore’s poetic corpus have on his stylistic consistency? Second, what practical and conceptual changes occur in the notion of authorship when we approach it through the methods of computational analysis? The arguments of the preceding chapters have emphasised the value of considering different sources of agency in the construction of an authorial persona, and the book’s conclusion examines some logical consequences of that trajectory. A basic assumption of stylometry—the statistical analysis of literary style—insists that a quantifiable and (often) distinctive aspect of an author’s style is unconscious. As stylistic consistency is often posited as a key characteristic of authorship, is this criterion evident in an author, like Moore, whose verse encompasses lyric, satiric, epic, song and ballad, and epistolary modes, and a wide range of poetic forms? In other words, do genre effects and features supersede an author’s stylistic consistency? This chapter reflects on the implications of digital humanities methods for literary analysis, comparing the nature of the evidence, assumptions, and conclusions of stylometry with those of the methods employed in previous chapters.
