Reading Pilgrim at Tinker Creek in the Digital Age: On Corpus Stylistics and 'Intricacy'

Since the publication of Annie Dillard's Pilgrim at Tinker Creek in 1974, chapter 8, "Intricacy," has been the object of scholarly scrutiny. Critics agree that the chapter, with its portrayal of the vast array of life forms, is Pilgrim's focal point. However, the linguistic features of "Intricacy," and those of Pilgrim as a text, have not received much attention. The purpose of my analysis is to extend the frontiers of research on Pilgrim by exploring the possibilities of computational corpus approaches. My article uses corpus stylistic techniques to examine the patterns and irregularities that emerge when comparing "Intricacy" to Pilgrim's other chapters and language norms of the time. The article concludes by calling for more conversations between computational corpus analysts and literary critics and scholars. KEYWORDS: Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, corpus analysis, language, keywords, deviation
SINCE ITS PUBLICATION IN 1974, Annie Dillard's Pulitzer Prize-winning Pilgrim at Tinker Creek has received continuous attention from literary critics and scholars. Much criticism of the work has focused on […]