Communications of the ACM
New Analysis of Genesis Reveals ‘death Sandwich’ Literary Theme
Researchers using a new text analysis tool have found a pattern they refer to as the "Genesis Death Sandwich" in the Book of Genesis.
Credit: Edible Blog
Researchers at Keele and Amridge universities have discovered a common rhetorical structure known as bracketing in the Book of Genesis by using a new text analysis tool called Search Visualizer, which they say could revolutionize the search and analysis of large texts.
The rhetorical technique brackets one theme between two occurrences of another; for example, negative information is often bracketed between two pieces of positive information. The researchers found that the opening and closing verses of Genesis often refer to life, while death is mentioned only in the middle, in a pattern they refer to as the "Genesis Death Sandwich."
Search Visualizer, developed by Keele University's Gordon Rugg, depicts entire texts as a grid in which squares represent individual words, and keywords appear in color. Rugg says the keywords "life" and '"death" in the King James Version of Genesis clearly reveal the rhetorical bracketing structure, although whether this was intentional remains unclear.
He says Search Visualizer "offers a quick and simple way for researchers to identify patterns, or see which of their ideas might be red herrings, which is an important insight for researchers dealing with large texts."
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