The Epigraph Effect: A Digital Humanities Approach to Literary Influence and Tradition

Abstract

Abstract It is common to discover an epigraph in the opening pages of a novel that highlights one or more of the major themes and denotes the influence of another author on the composition of the text. Yet, the inclusion of an epigraph also bestows prestige on the citing text – helping the author to select his or her place in the wider literary tradition – and situates the text in a particular genre or historical period. In order to trace the development of what Gérard Genette dubbed the ‘epigraph effect’, we collected 16,963 epigraphs and recorded their provenance (author, work, date, and country of origin). This collection enables us to trace intertextual connections between authors throughout literary history and national traditions.