RSÉAA XVII-XVIII 66 (2009) RODERICK RANDOM AMIDST EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY FICTION : A COMPUTER-AIDED TEXTUAL ANALYSIS

Roderick Random is compared with nineteen other works of fiction published in the eighteenth century, organised in different corpora. With the help of data obtained by textual or linguistic analysis software, what critics

have called “ stylistic energy” is investigated by focussing on the use of superlatives, on syntax, the expression of time and the itemisation of the body, as well as on the manner in which the narrator is made to wield the first person and frequent substantives. Contrasting the relative frequencies of particular words or of word-lists related to a given feature thus reveals several lines of force of this novel often described as lacking structure. Roderick Random est comparé à dix-neuf autres romans du dix-huitième

siècle, organisés en différents corpus, dans une démarche d’analyse

textuelle assistée par ordinateur. On examine ce que certains critiques ont

appelé “ l’énergie stylistique” de ce roman, en s’attachant à l’utilisation du

superlatif, à la syntaxe, à l’expression du tempset l’atomisation des corps, ainsi qu’àla manière dont le narrateur manie la première personne et les substantifs les plus fréquents. Confronter les fréquences relatives de certains mots et listes de mots en lien avec un thème ou un aspect stylistique donnés fait apparaître plusieurs lignes de force dans ce roman réputé sans structure.

ot many critical studies focus on Smollett’s way of writing,

possibly because Damian Grant’s comprehensive 1977 Tobias Smollett: A Study in Style can be found in most university libraries, and also because interest in Smollett has waned since the early 1980s. 1 In this paper, Philip Stevick’s 1967 “ Stylistic Energy in the

Early Smollett,” Paul-Gabriel Boucé’s chapter on “ Aspects stylistiques”

N