This repository accompanies the manuscript "Fans Reconstruct Heroes: Modeling Fictional Characters in Participatory Culture", submitted to the Semantic Web Journal Special Issue on Semantic Web and Ontology Design for Cultural Heritage.
The paper introduces the Character Module with evaluation using Competency Quesitons and Case Study of the GOLEM Ontology (Graphs and Ontologies for Literary Evolution Models), a framework for modeling fictional characters across canonical and fan-created works. The ontology:
- Bridges literary theory with participatory culture
- Provides formal representation of dynamic, multi-contextual characters
- Ensures interoperability with CIDOC-CRM, DOLCE, and other standards
| Feature | Description |
|---|---|
| Mixed Approach | Top-down (theory) + bottom-up (fan data) integration |
| Modular Design | Reusable components for characters, events, relationships, etc. |
| Interoperability | Aligns with CIDOC-CRM, DOLCE-Lite-Plus, and LRMoo |
| Implementation | Developed in Protégé, documented with PyLode |
Dataset: 10 curated stories from AO3's Ancient Greek Religion and Lore fandom (tagged "Major Character Death")
- Annotation:
- Manual tagging of death events (victim, perpetrator, method)
- LLM-assisted feature extraction (Deepseek-V3) with human correction
- Modeling:
- RDF conversion using GOLEM ontology
- SPARQL querying for evaluation
🔗 Ontology Resources:
Character_Ontology_Paper/
├── CaseStudy_ttl/ # RDF datasets for case study
├── CQ-SPARQL # Competency questions & queries
└── README.md # This file
- Explore the CaseStudy_ttl
- Run SPARQL queries from CQ-SPARQL at our endpoint
- Refer to the GOLEM documentation for ontology details
@article{yang2025golem,
title={Fans Reconstruct Heroes: Modeling Fictional Characters in Participatory Culture},
author={Yang, Xiaoyan and Pianzola, Federico},
journal={Semantic Web Journal},
year={2025},
note={Under review}
}