Literary Discourse and the Formal Structuring of Meaning: Possibilities and Boundary Conditions of Computational Modeling

Document Type : Original Article

Author

Senior Environmental Researcher from the Science and Research Branch of Islamic Azad University and an expert in Applied Physics with a focus on Atomic Physics from Amirkabir University of Technology, Tehran, Iran.

10.22034/lda.2026.145557.1131

Abstract

The traditional opposition between literary discourse and mathematical thought has often rested on the assumption that formal and computational structures are inherently incompatible with the polysemy that governs the production, persistence, and interpretation of meaning in literary discourse. Within this view, literary studies are understood to engage with phenomena in which ambiguity and interpretive openness take precedence over singular or determinate answers, whereas mathematics and the formal sciences—conceived as systems grounded in precision, clarity, and generalizability—are regarded as incapable of addressing meaning.
Drawing on the concept of semantic inertia and the identification of inertia worlds within the conceptual structures of literary narrative, this article argues that such a dichotomy is neither a theoretical necessity nor a methodologically justified stance. The core problem lies not in the use of mathematical tools as such, but in claims concerning their explanatory sufficiency with respect to meaning. By introducing the notion of boundary conditions, the article contends that alongside irreducible interpretive domains there exist areas in which formal models can legitimately contribute to the clarification of structural constraints, patterns of continuity, and the internal organization of narrative.
Finally, through a case study of the introduction to the story of Bizhan and Manizhe in the Shāhnāmeh, the article demonstrates that formal modeling—without claiming to replace or reduce interpretive meaning in literary discourse—can be reconsidered as one of the modes of intra-discursive structuring of meaning.

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