Does literature evolve one funeral at a time?

Area of Science:

• Literary studies
• Cultural evolution
• Computational social science

Background:

• The cultural evolution of literary fiction is understudied.
• Literary data offers insights into general cultural change.
• Understanding drivers of change in fiction is key to cultural dynamics.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate whether long-term topic changes in Anglophone fiction are driven by individual author evolution or by cohort turnover.
• To quantify the relative contributions of author entrances, exits, and individual change to topic evolution.

Main Methods:

• Utilized a large dataset of over 23,000 Anglophone fiction books.
• Applied natural language processing tools for topic analysis.
• Employed decomposition analysis based on the Price equation from evolutionary ecology.

Main Results:

• Cohort turnover is a more significant driver of topic change in fiction than individual author change.
• The arrival of new authors (entrances) has a stronger effect on topic trends than author exits.
• The asymmetry between entrances and exits is linked to the unequal lengths of authors' careers.

Conclusions:

• Literary topic evolution is predominantly shaped by generational shifts in authorship.
• The influx of new authors plays a critical role in shaping the thematic landscape of fiction.
• The study provides a novel quantitative approach to understanding cultural change in literature.