This visualization is a way to map multiple and complex relations in the British literary field in the 1920-30s. Links between actors of the field were extremely various: relations author-editor, author-critic, author-author, friendships, love affairs, animosities, rivalries, participation in different literary unions, frequentation of the same literary salons, etc. One of the important communication means/channels was a specific literary genre, roman à clef, born in the French aristocratic culture of the 17th century and highly sought-after in the British bohemian circles of the 1920-30s. The differentia specifica of this genre is to depict real persons under the guise of novels’ characters. The 17th century romans à clefs were written by aristocrats, about aristocrats and for aristocrats. Modernist writers adapted this form of writing for their needs writing novels, whose characters referred to their contemporaries and (often) colleagues: other writers, critics, artists, editors, etc. Moreover, the participants of artistic circles, salons and cénacles were not only objects of representation, but also the target audience of romans à clef, their ideal readers, possessing the key to the depicted reality and thus apt to decipher the novel code.
The data for visualization derive from five romans à clefs of the period: Orlando by Virginia Woolf, Point Counter Point by Aldous Huxley, Cakes and Ale by Somerset Maugham, Women in Love by D.H. Lawrence and Triple Fugue by Osbert Sitwell. These five novels refer and address to thirty prominent figures of literary and artistic process of the 1920-30s. The relations and connections between them form the core of the presented database which may be further extended to other modernist romans à clef and persons associated with them.
The data on communication in literary communities (correspondence, personal and professional relations, etc.) are for the most part based on the Database of the Modernism Lab at Yale University, while the data on characters and their originals are generally taken from the Dictionary of Real People and Places in Fiction by M. C. Rintoul.
The visualization consists of two layouts: a “communication” graph and a “who is who” graph.
The communication graph maps the connections between different participants of literary field. It reflects six types of relationships: personal relations, correspondence, literary review, editing, studying the texts of each other and depicting each other in romans à clef. The graph allows to trace the influence of literary actors based on their integration in literary community (nodes size reflects the number of connections, which this or that person have had). Arrows mirror the directionality of relationships: who and of whom wrote a novel/review/study, etc. User may highlight a certain node in order to look into all the relationship of the person s/he is interested in, or choose certain type of relationship (by filter menu).
The “who is who” graph represents correspondences between the actors of literary field and the characters of the selected romans à clef. Who was the source/inspiration for this or that personage? And at the same time under the guise of what personnages this or that writer, artist, critic, editor is represented? Each person can be disguised several times and each character can refer to several persons. There are two types of nodes representing characters and actors of literary field; edges are colored according to the novel, which they represent.
Taken together, these two graphs enable the user to see the place of the roman à clef among other ways of communication between writers, critics, artists and bohemians of the 1920-30s in Britain.
This project is a part of the course on data visualisation (Isaac Pante, section of language science and information) within the framework of the interfaculty Master's program in Digital Humanities at UNIL. (Ce projet a été réalisé dans le cadre du cours de visualisation de données (Isaac Pante, section des sciences du langage et de l'information) suivi au sein du master interfacultaire en Humanités numériques de l'UNIL).