Multi-perspective Event Detection in Texts Documenting the 1944 Battle of Arnhem

Abstract

We present a pilot project which combines the respective strengths of research practices in history, memory studies, and computational linguistics. We present a proof-of-concept workflow for the semi-automatic detection and linking of narratives referring to the same event based on references to location names. We rely on the interaction between human evaluation, entity extraction, mapping, and network visualization techniques. We work with 83 narratives and reports surrounding the Battle of Arnhem in 1944. The liberation of the Netherlands led to frequent encounters between civilians and soldiers in the war zones. We seek to find multi-perspective descriptions of these interactions marked by a high degree of uncertainty, differing anticipations and sometimes violence. A proof-of-concept study shows that we cannot rely on standard named-entity recognition but need to develop fine-grained detection of street names, to capture the scenes that connect multi-perspective narratives.