Document Type
Poster
Publication Date
Fall 2024
Abstract
Journey to the Westis one of the most influential literary works to come out of the East. Set in Tang-era China, the book is a religious allegory following a Buddhist monk and his supernatural disciples who make a pilgrimage from China to India. The chaptered format of the story lends itself to a very episodic approach to conflict & resolution in the story. The text also has a myriad of different influences; it heavily draws inspiration from Buddhist folklore, Confucianist tradition, and Daoist ideology, which were the reigning schools of thought in 16th-century imperial China(the time period in which this text was most likely written). This combination of elements from three major branches of Chinese philosophy, as well as the episodic nature, make it an interesting and complex case study for sentiment analysis: how would machine learning models interpret a text that has so many different characters & plot-points, yoyo-ing between peace and conflict?
Recommended Citation
Yu, Ava and Elkins, Katherine, "Journey to the West: A Sentiment Analysis Exploration" (2024). IPHS 200: Programming Humanity. Paper 70.
https://digital.kenyon.edu/dh_iphs_prog/70
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