Emotional polyphony in Milan Kundera’s The Joke : a computational analysis of narrative voices through SenticNet

Abstract

This article investigates the affective architecture underlying narrative polyphony in Milan Kundera’s The Joke through a computational analysis of emotion dynamics. The study addresses a central narratological question: how distinct narrative voices construct differentiated emotional domains within a polyphonic framework. To explore this issue, the text is segmented according to Kundera’s four first-person narrators, and each segment is examined through SenticNet-based emotion modeling. For every narrative voice, the four core affective dimensions of the Hourglass of Emotion (attitude, introspection, sensitivity, temper) are computed together with a polarity-based sentiment index. The resulting trajectories are visualized across the novel, and key turning points—such as Ludvik’s deportation to the labor camp—are marked to assess how major events shape affective modulation. Radar charts and comparative boxplots reveal clear divergences among the emotional profiles of the narrators, indicating that Kundera’s polyphony operates not only on stylistic or ideological levels but also through the distribution of distinct affective regions. These results demonstrate that computational emotion analysis can operationalize interpretive intuitions commonly addressed through qualitative close reading, offering an empirically grounded perspective on the internal architecture of polyphonic fiction. The study highlights the interpretive potential of affective computing in literary analysis and suggests possible extensions to broader corpora of Central European narrative.