The Boundary of Machine Reading: From Data to Meaning
Main Article Content
Abstract
The article examines the boundaries of machine reading in the context of novel poetics. The algorithm is considered as a mediating structure capable of revealing formal regularities but not generating meaning. Based on the works of Ihde, Verbeek, Raj, Uma and Shanmugam, Zhao, Koskinen-Koivisto and Kajander, as well as Vinogradov, Lotman, and Tynyanov, it is shown that digital analysis expands the observability of the text but does not replace interpretation. The concept of distributed understanding is introduced to describe the interaction between human and algorithm. The boundary of machine reading is defined as the transition from data to meaning.
Downloads
Article Details
Section

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Authors retain the copyright of their manuscripts, and all Open Access articles are disseminated under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0 (CC-BY), which licenses unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided that the original work is appropriately cited. The use of general descriptive names, trade names, trademarks, and so forth in this publication, even if not specifically identified, does not imply that these names are not protected by the relevant laws and regulations.
How to Cite
References
Bakhtin, M. M. (1979). Estetika Slovesnogo Tvorchestva [Aesthetics of Verbal Art]. Moscow: Iskusstvo.
Boud, K. (2025). Digital Humanities in the Age of AI: Reflections on Opportunities and Challenges. Ethnologia Fennica, 52, 133–136.
Heidegger, M. (1996). Being and Time. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.
Ihde, D. (1990). Technology and the Lifeworld: From Garden to Earth. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press.
Koskinen-Koivisto, E., & Kajander, A. (2025). Digital Humanities in the Age of AI: Reflections on Opportunities and Challenges. Ethnologia Fennica, 52, 134–136.
Lotman, Y. M. (1972). Analiz Poeticheskogo Teksta [Analysis of Poetic Text]. Moscow: Prosveshchenie.
Raj, P. E. (2024). Digital Hermeneutics: Interpretation and the Interpretational Machines. In Digital Humanities in the India Rim (pp. 101–130). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Tynianov, Y. N. (1977). Poetika. Istoriya Literatury. Kino [Poetics. Literary History. Cinema]. Moscow: Nauka.
Uma, P., & Shanmugam, G. (2023). Artificial Intelligence and Digital Poetics: Reconfiguring Narrative Interpretation in Prose Fiction. Journal of Digital Humanities and Literary Studies, 15, 115–134.
Verbeek, P.-P. (2008). What Things Do: Philosophical Reflections on Technology, Agency and Design. University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State University Press.
Vinogradov, V. V. (1976). O Yazyke Khudozhestvennoy Literatury [On the Language of Artistic Literature]. Moscow: Nauka.
Zhao, L. (2023). Computational Interpretation and Its Limits: A Study in Digital Poetics. Singapore: Springer Academic.