A Perspective on Literary Metaphor in the Context of Generative AI
This work addresses the problem of enhancing creative text generation with literary metaphor for applications in poetry and language arts, but it is incremental as it builds on existing LSTM methods.
The study investigated whether including original figurative language improves textual quality by training an LSTM-based language model in Afrikaans, which produced phrases with novel figures of speech and explored AI as a defamiliarisation technique to augment poetic expression.
At the intersection of creative text generation and literary theory, this study explores the role of literary metaphor and its capacity to generate a range of meanings. In this regard, literary metaphor is vital to the development of any particular language. To investigate whether the inclusion of original figurative language improves textual quality, we trained an LSTM-based language model in Afrikaans. The network produces phrases containing compellingly novel figures of speech. Specifically, the emphasis falls on how AI might be utilised as a defamiliarisation technique, which disrupts expected uses of language to augment poetic expression. Providing a literary perspective on text generation, the paper raises thought-provoking questions on aesthetic value, interpretation and evaluation.