Link analysis, terrorism, and ‘Hamlet’
Since 9/11, lots of hard work has been done on “link analysis” — looking at who communicates with whom, who sends money to whom, and so on, as a way of detecting and delineating terrorist networks, nodes and points of vulnerability. David Ignatius makes this fact a key to his new novel, Bloodmoney. Now ...
Since 9/11, lots of hard work has been done on "link analysis" -- looking at who communicates with whom, who sends money to whom, and so on, as a way of detecting and delineating terrorist networks, nodes and points of vulnerability. David Ignatius makes this fact a key to his new novel, Bloodmoney.
Now a Stanford professor of English is doing link analysis in literature. To my surprise, he is coming up with some interesting stuff on Hamlet:
" ... of all the characters who speak to both Hamlet and Claudius, only two manage to survive the play (Moretti calls this part of the network the "region of death"). Or one notices that Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, the most famous pair of minor characters in all of Shakespeare, never speak to each other."
Since 9/11, lots of hard work has been done on “link analysis” — looking at who communicates with whom, who sends money to whom, and so on, as a way of detecting and delineating terrorist networks, nodes and points of vulnerability. David Ignatius makes this fact a key to his new novel, Bloodmoney.
Now a Stanford professor of English is doing link analysis in literature. To my surprise, he is coming up with some interesting stuff on Hamlet:
” … of all the characters who speak to both Hamlet and Claudius, only two manage to survive the play (Moretti calls this part of the network the “region of death”). Or one notices that Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, the most famous pair of minor characters in all of Shakespeare, never speak to each other.”
More from Foreign Policy
Why Do People Hate Realism So Much?
The school of thought doesn’t explain everything—but its proponents foresaw the potential for conflict over Ukraine long before it erupted.
China’s Crisis of Confidence
What if, instead of being a competitor, China can no longer afford to compete at all?
Why This Global Economic Crisis Is Different
This is the first time since World War II that there may be no cooperative way out.
China Is Hardening Itself for Economic War
Beijing is trying to close economic vulnerabilities out of fear of U.S. containment.
Sign up for Morning Brief
Foreign Policy’s flagship daily newsletter with what’s coming up around the world today from Foreign Policy’s newsletter writer Colm Quinn.
By signing up, I agree to the Privacy Policy and Terms of Use and to occasionally receive special offers from Foreign Policy.