The frontier of the settler ‘frontier’: Raymond Isaac Orr, Raina Heaton, Kun Lu, Ryan Dubnicek, Isabella Magni, Nikolaus Parulian, ‘Pushing Back against the Frontier: Native American Writing on Western Expansion’, American Indian Culture and Research Journal , 49, 2, 2026, pp. 107-126 | settler colonial studies blog

The frontier of the settler ‘frontier’: Raymond Isaac Orr, Raina Heaton, Kun Lu, Ryan Dubnicek, Isabella Magni, Nikolaus Parulian, ‘Pushing Back against the Frontier: Native American Writing on Western Expansion’, American Indian Culture and Research Journal , 49, 2, 2026, pp. 107-126

04Aug26

Excerpt: Authors’ words are the center of literary expression and analysis. In addition to “close reading” and qualitative approaches to literature, there is a growing interest in using computer-assisted text-mining to understand patterns in written expression.1 By counting the use of certain key terms and other terms in their proximity for context, text-mining finds potential patterns in literary texts on a large scale. Computer-assisted text analysis is an automated extension of coding interviews or other materials in the social sciences, but at a larger scale. Whereas an individual is unable to read and directly compare 10,000 works, computer-assisted programs may examine millions. Computer-assisted text-mining studies can offer greater confidence about the nature of language and its change across time, as well as differences between certain populations.2 For instance, a recent study in the field of linguistics found that recent works published in English used more individualistic terms such as “I” or “me” compared to work published a century ago, with the possible implication that society grew more self-referential or self-focused over this period.

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