auteurdatum

Auteurdatum is a proposed metadata construct used in digital humanities and information science to capture the distinctive creative fingerprint of an author or creator across multiple works. The term blends auteur, from auteur theory referring to a creator whose personal vision shapes a body of work, with datum, a unit of information. An auteurdatum aims to encode features such as recurrent thematic concerns, narrative or cinematic techniques, stylistic markers, and collaboration patterns observed in a corpus of works.

Purpose and use include supporting computational analyses, cross-work comparison, and authorship attribution, as well as enriching library catalogs, film databases, and archives by providing a structured representation of an author’s signature. Content commonly encompasses fields for genres, recurring motifs, narrative voice or shot language, pacing and structure, signature devices, and networks of collaborators, editors, or studios. While developed primarily for literature and film, the concept can be extended to other media, though cross-media comparisons pose additional challenges.

Data modeling and standards considerations suggest representing an auteurdatum as a structured object in RDF or JSON, linked to a creator entity and related works. Alignment with established standards—such as FRBR, BIBFRAME, Schema.org, and relevant domain ontologies—helps ensure interoperability and reuse across platforms.

Limitations include subjectivity, temporal evolution of a creator’s style, potential attribution disputes, and data quality issues. As a flexible research construct, the auteurdatum aims to support exploratory analysis while acknowledging these constraints. See also auteur theory, authorship attribution, metadata, digital humanities, and bibliometrics.