Digital Humanities in Practice: Exploring Texts through AI, CLiC, and Voyant Tools
This blog presents my practical exploration of Digital Humanities and literary studies through different digital tools and activities. I explored literary texts using AI-based poetry analysis, the CLiC concordance tool, and Voyant Tools. Through these activities, I examined how technology can help us identify patterns, repetitions, themes, character development, symbolism, and linguistic features that may not be immediately visible through traditional close reading.
My Understanding of the TED Talk
The Algorithmic Mirror: What AI Poetry Reveals About Being Human
Introduction
Can an algorithm feel the sting of heartbreak? Can a string of code understand the quiet weight of nostalgia? On the surface, the question "Can a computer write poetry?" sounds like a technical query about natural language processing and machine learning capabilities. We often frame artificial intelligence in terms of output: How fast can it generate text? How convincing is the style?
However, as researcher Oscar Schwartz points out, when we ask whether a computer can create art, we aren't actually testing the limits of technology. We are probing the boundaries of ourselves. Poetry has long been considered one of the most uniquely human forms of expression—a delicate fusion of consciousness, emotion, and linguistic craft. When machines enter this space, they force us to confront a far deeper question: What actually makes us human, and how do we decide who—or what—belongs in that category?
๐1. The Turing Test for Verse: Fooled by the Machine
When presented with poetry written by both historical literary icons and algorithmic generators, human readers are surprisingly bad at telling them apart. Algorithms using simple pattern-matching methods can fool readers over 60% of the time, easily passing traditional benchmarks for artificial intelligence.
Interestingly, the inverse is also true. When exposed to avant-garde human poetry—such as the fragmented, abstract style of Gertrude Stein—readers frequently mistake human creativity for mechanical error. This breakdown in identification reveals a striking paradox:
Algorithms can emulate traditional human warmth by regurgitating patterns of emotional language.
Humans can write in ways so abstract or structural that they appear completely mechanical.
If a machine can sound like William Blake and a human can sound like an algorithm, the line dividing human expression from machine output becomes remarkably blurry.
๐2. Meaning vs. Pattern: The Mechanism Behind the Screen
To understand why machines excel at mimicking art, we have to look at how they process language. Algorithms don't read poetry to find solace, process grief, or express joy. They don't understand the semantic meaning or emotional weight of the words they select.
Instead, these systems treat language purely as structural raw material. They analyze massive datasets—whether it's the complete works of Emily Dickinson, historical literature, or daily social media feeds—to learn statistical probabilities of how words sit next to one another. What feels like emotional depth to a human reader is, behind the scenes, a highly calculated recombination of syntax and style.
"The computer does not know the meaning of the words it is using. Language is just raw material—and nevertheless, it is able to create something that feels deeply human."
๐3. The Algorithmic Mirror: Humanity as a Moving Target
Perhaps the biggest takeaway from analyzing machine-generated art is that technology functions as a mirror. A computer does not possess a mind of its own; it reflects whatever model of humanity we choose to feed into it. Feed it romantic verse, and it reflects romanticism; feed it modern outrage, and it reflects noise.
More importantly, this mirror shows us that "humanness" is not a static scientific fact. It is an evolving, subjective category that shifts across eras, cultures, and aesthetic movements. What we consider authentically human in one century may seem mechanical or alien in the next.
Conclusion: Designing the Reflection
As artificial intelligence continues to advance, our focus often shifts toward capability: Can we build smarter machines? Can we make them more creative? Can we make them indistinguishable from us?
But as technology reaches new milestones, the central debate must pivot from technical capability to philosophical reflection. The real challenge is not merely building human-like systems, but deciding which vision of humanity we want reflected back at us. Technology will continue to echo our language, our art, and our ideas—it is up to us to ensure that what it reflects represents the best of what we choose to be.
My Experience: Human or Computer?
After watching the TED Talk, I took the Human or Computer? poetry test. I was confident that I could easily identify the human-written poems, but the results surprised me. Out of the six sonnets, I guessed only three correctly. This made me realize that AI-generated poetry can sound remarkably human. More importantly, the test challenged my assumptions about creativity and showed me that we often judge a poem differently once we know who wrote it. It was a fascinating experience that made me think more deeply about authorship, creativity, and the future of literature.
Screenshots of all six poems
Sonnet 1
I guessed it was written by AI, but it was written by a human poet.
My final score? 3 out of 6.
At first, I felt a slight wave of defeat. As someone who appreciates literature, shouldn't I be able to instantly spot the soul of a human poet compared to cold computer code? But as I sat with my average score, I realized that getting half of them wrong wasn't a personal failure of literary intuition—it was a fascinating revelation about how we read, interpret, and assign meaning to art.
Here is what scoring 3/6 on a poetry Turing Test revealed about the intersection of human emotion and machine logic.
๐1. We Project Meaning Where None Exists
When I got a machine-generated poem wrong (assuming a human wrote it), it was usually because my brain did the heavy lifting for the algorithm.
Algorithms excel at syntax, meter, and evocative juxtaposition. A computer can pair words like "shattered glass," "humid heat," and "lonely oven door" in a way that feels metaphorical. As human readers, we are trained to look for depth. When a machine produces an abstract line, we instinctively fill in the emotional blanks, weaving a narrative that the program never actually intended. The machine provides the scaffold; our own human empathy builds the house.
๐2. We Miscalculate What "Human" Writing Looks Like
The inverse was just as surprising: I mistook actual human poetry for machine output.
Why? Because human poets don't always write in linear, traditional ways. When humans experiment with avant-garde structures, repetition, or surreal imagery, their work can feel sterile, fragmented, or mechanical to a casual reader. We tend to hold a stereotype of what "human" poetry should be—heartfelt, highly emotional, and structured—and when a human poet subverts that expectation, we accuse them of sounding like a robot.
๐3. The Test Isn't Measuring the Computer—It's Measuring Us
Scoring 3 out of 6 highlights a fundamental truth about algorithmic art: the computer is functioning as a mirror.
An algorithm doesn't know what grief, joy, or nostalgia feels like. It simply processes language as statistical raw material—learning word associations and rhyme schemes. Yet, when those generated words hit our eyes, they trigger real human emotions. The fact that an algorithm can fool us half the time proves that poetry isn't just about the sender of the message; it is equally about the receiver.
CLiC Practical Activity: Exploring Character, Structure, and Symbolism in A Christmas Carol
Introduction
As part of the CLiC–Dickens Project and our Digital Humanities laboratory activity under the guidance of Dr. Dilip Barad, I explored Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol using the CLiC (Corpus Linguistics in Context) concordance tool. The purpose of this practical activity was to understand how digital methods can support literary interpretation by making patterns of repetition, word distribution, and textual positioning more visible. CLiC is particularly useful for corpus stylistics because it allows readers to examine literary texts through concordance searches and observe how particular words and phrases function within their wider contexts.
The assigned activity, “Character and structure in A Christmas Carol,” focuses on the importance of the opening of a fictional text and on the way repetition can bring significant elements of the fictional world into focus. The activity is divided into two major parts. Activity 12.1 examines the opening of fairy tales through the phrase “once upon a time” and investigates the repeated use of “knocker”. Activity 12.2 focuses on the word “fire” and its distribution and symbolic significance throughout A Christmas Carol.
For my practical investigation, I selected A Christmas Carol from the ArTs – Additional Requested Texts corpus in CLiC and conducted concordance searches for three important terms: “once upon a time,” “knocker,” and “fire.” I also examined the concordance lines, the position of words within the text, their frequency, and their distribution. The screenshots obtained from CLiC were used as visual evidence of my practical work.
Aim of the Activity
The main aim of this activity was to explore how Dickens uses language, repetition, distribution, and narrative structure to construct his fictional world and develop the character of Scrooge.
More specifically, the activity aimed to:
examine how “once upon a time” functions differently in A Christmas Carol from its conventional use in fairy tales;
compare the phrase with its occurrences in other nineteenth-century corpora;
investigate the repetition of “knocker” and its structural importance;
examine the distribution of “fire” throughout the novella;
identify different types and contexts of fire;
understand how recurring words can contribute to characterization and symbolism; and
experience how corpus-based digital tools can complement traditional close reading.
Methodology: Using the CLiC Concordance Tool
For this practical activity, I accessed the CLiC concordance tool and selected A Christmas Carol from the ArTs – Additional Requested Texts corpus. CLiC provides concordance searches that display a search term together with its surrounding textual context. This makes it possible to examine not only how frequently a word occurs but also how it is used and where it appears within the text. CLiC is designed as a corpus stylistics resource for investigating literary texts and fictional characters through computer-assisted methods.
For the first search, I searched for the whole phrase “once upon a time.” I then searched for the individual word “knocker” and examined its occurrences across the novella. Finally, I searched for “fire” and examined its distribution using the location information provided by CLiC.
During the searches, I paid attention to three major aspects:
Frequency – how many times a word or phrase occurs.
Context – the words and situations surrounding each occurrence.
Distribution – where the word appears within the overall narrative.
The combination of these three aspects helped me move from simply finding words to interpreting their literary significance.
Activity 12.1: The Opening of Fairy Tales
“Once upon a time” in A Christmas Carol
One of the most interesting features of Dickens’s opening is his use of the familiar fairy-tale expression “once upon a time.” In conventional storytelling, especially in fairy tales and children's literature, the phrase normally signals the beginning of a story. It immediately establishes a storytelling atmosphere and prepares the reader for an imaginative or fictional world.
However, Dickens does something unusual in A Christmas Carol. He does not begin the novella directly with “Once upon a time.” Instead, the narrator first provides important information about Marley and Scrooge.
The narrator repeatedly establishes the fact that Marley is dead and gives considerable attention to Scrooge's personality. Scrooge is presented as cold, miserly, emotionally detached, and resistant to human warmth. Only after this detailed preparation does Dickens use the phrase:
“Once upon a time--of all the good days in the year, on Christmas Eve--old Scrooge sat busy in his counting-house.”
This placement is significant. Dickens takes a conventional fairy-tale opening and places it inside an already established narrative. Therefore, the phrase does not simply introduce the entire novella. Instead, it marks the beginning of the central story involving Scrooge.
The phrase therefore creates a transition between two modes of narration. The narrator initially sounds factual and authoritative, insisting upon the death of Marley and the character of Scrooge. After establishing these facts, the familiar fairy-tale formula invites the reader into the more imaginative and supernatural dimension of the story.
Comparison with Other Corpora
The CLiC activity also asks us to compare the use of “once upon a time” in A Christmas Carol with its use in other corpora such as ChiLit, 19C, and DNov.
The comparison is particularly interesting because “once upon a time” is strongly associated today with children's stories and fairy tales. In the ChiLit corpus, the phrase frequently occurs near the beginning of children's narratives, where it functions as a conventional storytelling formula. This demonstrates its strong connection with the traditional opening of children's fiction.
However, the examples from the 19C and DNov corpora demonstrate that the phrase could also function as a more general temporal expression. It could refer to something that happened in the past rather than necessarily introducing an entire story.
Dickens's use in A Christmas Carol therefore combines these possibilities. The phrase carries the cultural memory of fairy-tale storytelling, but Dickens places it after a realistic and detailed introduction to Scrooge. This gives the opening a distinctive effect: the reader is prepared for a supernatural story while remaining grounded in a recognizable nineteenth-century London setting.
I also captured screenshots of my CLiC concordance searches as evidence of the practical process.
Figure 1: CLiC concordance search for “once upon a time” in A Christmas Carol.
The screenshot demonstrates the position and context of the phrase within the text and supports the observation that Dickens does not use it as the absolute opening of the novella.
My Observation
The CLiC search made this feature much clearer to me than close reading alone. On the printed page, I could recognize that “once upon a time” occurs after the initial description of Scrooge. However, the concordance and text-position information made its location within the narrative immediately visible.
This showed me that Dickens is deliberately manipulating a familiar narrative convention. Rather than using “once upon a time” simply to begin the whole story, he uses it to signal the beginning of the main narrative episode after establishing essential information about the protagonist.
Thus, the phrase helps connect fairy-tale convention, narrative structure, and characterization.
The Repetition of “Knocker”
The second part of Activity 12.1 focuses on the word “knocker.” The door-knocker becomes particularly important when Scrooge returns home and unexpectedly sees Marley's face in it.
The CLiC concordance search revealed seven occurrences of “knocker” in A Christmas Carol. Five of these occur in the important scene near the beginning of the novella, when Scrooge sees Marley's face in the door-knocker. The remaining occurrences appear near the end of the story.
This distribution is significant because the word does more than describe an ordinary object. The door-knocker becomes associated with the supernatural transformation that Scrooge is about to experience.
Repetition as a Structural Device
In the opening scene, Dickens repeatedly draws the reader's attention to the knocker. The repetition slows down the narrative and emphasizes Scrooge's strange perception.
The ordinary door-knocker temporarily becomes Marley's face. This transformation introduces uncertainty between the ordinary and the supernatural. Scrooge initially attempts to rationalize what he sees, but the strange image prepares both Scrooge and the reader for the supernatural events that follow.
The word “knocker” therefore becomes connected with the beginning of Scrooge's transformation.
The CLiC results become even more interesting when the occurrences near the end of the novella are considered. The object that earlier produced fear is later viewed positively by the transformed Scrooge. This creates a kind of structural circularity.
At the beginning, Scrooge sees the knocker as something frightening because he is emotionally isolated and incapable of responding openly to the supernatural. At the end, he looks at the same object with affection and delight.
Therefore, the repetition of “knocker” helps Dickens connect the beginning and ending of the narrative.
Figure 2: CLiC concordance search for “knocker” in A Christmas Carol.
This screenshot demonstrates the repeated occurrences of the word and makes its concentration in particular sections of the narrative visible.
My Observation
The concordance made this structural relationship particularly visible. Instead of encountering the seven occurrences separately while reading, I could see them together through the CLiC search. The concentration of occurrences at the beginning and their reappearance at the end suggested that the word has a framing function.
This taught me that repetition in literature is not necessarily accidental. A repeated lexical item can operate as a structural marker, connecting different parts of a narrative and reflecting a character's development.
Activity 12.2: Fire in A Christmas Carol
The Meaning of Fire for Scrooge
The second activity focuses on the word “fire.” At the beginning of the novella, Dickens introduces an important contrast between Scrooge and his clerk, Bob Cratchit.
Scrooge has a small fire in his counting-house, while Cratchit's fire is described as being so much smaller that it appears to be only one coal. Scrooge even controls access to the coal-box, preventing his clerk from making himself warmer.
This scene immediately establishes fire as more than a physical source of heat. It becomes connected with generosity, comfort, social relationships, and emotional warmth.
Scrooge possesses the resources to provide warmth, but he refuses to share them. His small fire therefore reflects his personality: he is materially capable of providing comfort but emotionally unwilling to do so.
Concordance Search for “Fire”
I then conducted a concordance search for “fire” in A Christmas Carol using CLiC.
One of the most interesting observations was the distribution of the word across the novella. Rather than being concentrated in only one chapter, “fire” occurs throughout the text.
This distribution suggests that fire is an important recurring element rather than an isolated image.
The CLiC search allowed me to examine different contexts in which fire appears. I could identify contrasts between small and large fires, weak and strong fires, solitary and social fires, and different domestic environments.
This made it possible to consider fire as a developing symbol throughout Scrooge's journey.
Different Types of Fire
1. Small and Feeble Fire
At the beginning of the novella, the fire associated with Scrooge's workplace is small. Cratchit's fire is even smaller.
This represents the lack of warmth and generosity in Scrooge's environment. The physical coldness of the workplace reflects the emotional coldness of its master.
2. Fire and Poverty
The small fire also reflects the economic inequality between Scrooge and Cratchit. Although Scrooge possesses wealth, Cratchit has very little access to physical comfort.
The fire therefore becomes connected with Dickens's wider concern with poverty and social responsibility.
3. Social and Domestic Fire
Elsewhere in the novella, fire appears in more positive social and domestic contexts. Hearths and fires can represent family, companionship, celebration, and hospitality.
In these contexts, fire has an almost opposite meaning to the cold environment associated with Scrooge.
4. Fire as Emotional Warmth
As the narrative progresses, fire can also be understood metaphorically. It represents the warmth that Scrooge initially lacks but gradually rediscovers.
The contrast between coldness and warmth therefore parallels the movement of Scrooge's character from isolation towards human connection.
Fire and Scrooge's Transformation
The recurring presence of fire becomes particularly meaningful when considered alongside Scrooge's transformation.
At the beginning, Scrooge is associated with coldness, isolation, and restriction. His control over the fire at his workplace demonstrates his unwillingness to share even basic comfort.
However, the narrative gradually introduces spaces associated with warmth, family, generosity, and celebration. These contrasting environments provide a model of the social relationships that Scrooge has rejected.
By the end of the novella, Scrooge's transformation is expressed through his changed relationship with other people. The symbolism of warmth therefore contributes to the larger moral movement of the narrative.
The CLiC distribution of “fire” helped me recognize that the word participates in this thematic pattern throughout the novella rather than functioning as a single isolated symbol.
Figure 3: CLiC concordance search for “fire” in A Christmas Carol.
The screenshot demonstrates the distribution of “fire” across the novella and provides evidence for examining its different contexts and symbolic meanings.
What the CLiC Concordance Revealed
The three searches produced three different but interconnected insights.
This comparison demonstrates the different ways in which individual words and phrases can contribute to a literary text.
“Once upon a time” is important because of its position.
“Knocker” is important because of its repetition and structural distribution.
“Fire” is important because of its recurrence and thematic distribution.
The CLiC concordance therefore allowed me to examine literary language at both a local and a global level.
Learning Outcomes
Through this CLiC practical activity, we — I, Mital, and Milan — gained a better understanding of A Christmas Carol and Digital Humanities. We learned:
How to use the CLiC concordance tool for literary analysis.
How to understand character, structure, repetition, and symbolism through words such as “once upon a time,” “knocker,” and “fire.”
How digital evidence can support close reading and interpretation.
How to identify patterns and understand the deeper concepts of the text.
We initially found it difficult to understand the CLiC interface and search options.
We faced some difficulty in interpreting concordance lines and text distribution.
As students, we also found it challenging to connect the digital results with literary interpretation.
Through group discussion and teamwork, we gradually overcame these difficulties.
The activity improved our digital research, critical thinking, literary analysis, and collaborative skills.
Overall, the activity helped us understand that digital tools can make literary study more systematic, practical, and evidence-based.
Personal Learning and Reflection
This CLiC practical activity changed the way I approached A Christmas Carol. Before using the concordance tool, I mainly understood repetition and symbolism through traditional close reading. CLiC offered another perspective by allowing me to see the distribution and recurrence of words across the whole text.
The search for “once upon a time” helped me understand the importance of textual position. I realized that where a word or phrase occurs can be just as significant as what the word means.
The search for “knocker” demonstrated how repetition can create structural connections between different parts of a narrative. Seeing the occurrences together made the relationship between the beginning and ending of the novella much easier to recognize.
The search for “fire” showed me how a single lexical item can participate in a wider symbolic network. Its different contexts helped me connect physical warmth with emotional warmth, poverty, generosity, family, and Scrooge's transformation.
Most importantly, the activity demonstrated that digital humanities does not replace traditional literary interpretation. Instead, digital tools can provide additional evidence that strengthens close reading. CLiC functions like a combination of a microscope and a map: it allows the reader to examine individual occurrences closely while also showing where patterns occur across the larger text.
Conclusion
The CLiC practical activity provided a valuable opportunity to explore Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol through corpus-based literary analysis. By investigating “once upon a time,” “knocker,” and “fire,” I was able to observe how Dickens uses language not only for description but also for characterization, structure, symbolism, and thematic development.
Overall, this activity showed me that corpus stylistics and close reading can work together. Traditional reading helps us interpret literary meaning, while CLiC provides a systematic way of identifying and examining patterns that may otherwise remain less visible. Through this practical experience, I gained a clearer understanding of how Digital Humanities can provide new approaches to the study of literature and can make literary interpretation more evidence-based, systematic, and insightful.
Voyant Tools Activity: Exploring Hard Times by Charles Dickens
For this activity, I used Voyant Tools, an online text analysis platform, to explore Hard Times by Charles Dickens. The aim was to experiment with digital tools that can reveal patterns, themes, and repetitions in a text that are not always immediately visible through traditional close reading.
Methodology
I uploaded the full text of Hard Times into Voyant. The tool automatically generated multiple visualizations, including a word cloud, frequency list, trends graph, and contextual keyword windows. These features provided both an overview and detailed insights into Dickens’s language.
Word count
The word count from Voyant Tools shows the most frequently occurring words in Hard Times. Words like “said”, “Mr”, “Bounderby”, and “Gradgrind” dominate the text, highlighting the central characters and the importance of dialogue in driving the narrative. This visualization helps to quickly identify key figures and recurring themes in the novel.
Bubbles
The Scatter Plot in Voyant Tools shows the relationship between two selected words or concepts throughout Hard Times. For instance, plotting “Gradgrind” against “school” highlights how frequently these two key elements appear together in the text. The distribution of points reveals patterns in character interactions, recurring themes, and narrative focus. This visualization helps to explore connections between characters, ideas, or motifs in a more analytical way, giving insight into Dickens’ thematic emphasis and storytelling structure.
Engaging with digital humanities tools such as CLiC and Voyant significantly enhanced my analytical and interpretive skills. By exploring patterns, thematic distributions, lexical repetitions, and structural features in Dickens’s texts, I gained a deeper understanding of narrative techniques, character development, symbolism, and the nuanced interplay between language, meaning, and reader perception. The hands-on experience demonstrated how digital methods can complement traditional close reading and provide clear, retrievable evidence to support literary analysis.
References
Barad, Dilip. “What If Machines Write Poems.” What If Machines Write Poems, 1 Jan. 1970, blog.dilipbarad.com/2017/03/what-if-machines-write-poems.html. Accessed 30 Sept. 2025.
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