LitSOM

The LitSOM proposed in this thesis applies Self-Organizing Maps (SOM) and Learning Vector Quantization (LVQ) to Russian literature. The SOM is used to create a map of contemporary Russian novels, which enables literary scholars to study intertextual relationships. Thus, LitSOM can be regarded as an example for the emerging scien- tific discipline of digital humanities. The quality of the resulting maps of Russian literature is assessed subjectively, i.e., from a philologist's point of view, and objectively, i.e., in a "classic" problem of text mining, namely, author classification. For that purpose the SOM can be easily converted to implement LVQ.