COMPUTERIZING CELINE

This article uses recent work on the computer-aided analysis of texts by the French writer Celine as a framework to discuss Olsen's paper on the current state of computer-aided literary analysis. Drawing on ana lysis of syntactic structures, lexical creativity and use of proper na mes, it makes two points: (1) given a rich theoretical framework and s ufficiently precise models, even simple computer tools such as text ed itors and concordances can make a valuable contribution to literary sc holarship; (2) it is important to view the computer not as a device fo r finding what we as readers have failed to notice, but rather as a me ans of focussing more closely on what we have already felt as readers, and of verifying hypotheses we have produced as researchers.