The literary Basics of the project are provided by Sandra Richters hermeneutic study ‘A History of Poetics’, that contains among a detailed account on the historic development of the genre of poetics and its interaction with other subjects (not only the arts) an extensive bibliography of any scientific poetic as well as selected aesthetics and early literature theoretical scriptures, that originate from the examination period.

Algorithmic criticism according to Stephen Ramsay is a “criticism prompted by the algorithmic manipulation of literary texts” (Stephen Ramsay: Algorithmic Criticism. In: A Companion to Digital Literary Studies. Ed. by Ray Siemens and Susan Schreibman. Malden, MA 2007, pp. 477-491, here p. 477.). It originates from a combination of hermeneutic and information technological methods of visualization and analysis of texts.

The variable visualization enables a combination of hermeneutic close reading and distant reading, according to Franco Moretti: “where distance is however not an obstacle, but a specific form of knowledge: fewer elements, hence a shaper sende of their overall interconnection.” (Franco Moretti: Graphs, Maps, Trees. Abstract Models for a Literary History. London/New York 2005, p. 1)

Being a pilot study, ePoetics aims to show how hermeneutic and algorithmic methods as well as methods of visualization may mutually encourage and complement ‘algorithmic criticism’.