Malamud at Oregon State: A Digital Humanities Project

Request Dynamics

These visualizations focus on Request dynamics (asking for actions, obeying those actions, and/or refusing those actions). Request dynamics are worth analyzing because then can (in some ways) be seen as manifestations of power dynamics.

Counter to what might be expected, Levin actually begins to obey requests much more in the second half of the novel than in the first half.

This graph visualizes the same information displayed in the graph above it, just in a different format for clarity.

Obfuscation appears to be regular and consistent between both parties (though more frequent for Levin). Blackmail occurs halfway through the novel and in large amounts at the very end. (For an example, see Voting For Fabrikant.)

When viewed as a collective, "Other" (non-Levin) characters in the novel have a fairly even distribution of accepting/refusing requests. Of particular interest, though, is the swathe of aquiescence in the novel's middle.

Much of the request dynamics revolve around Levin either obeying or refusing requests, though content of all categories is present in fair amounts.

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