Quantitative research in practice: Applying a differential scale questionnaire to literature

Abstract

Literary scholarship has traditionally relied on interpretative studies. Grounded on the theoretical bases of the Empirical Study of Literature, this paper moves away from such tradition by adopting an empirical perspective. Its purpose is to report on the design of a questionnaire and how semantic differentials were created so as to elicit responses from readers from two different cultures, namely, Ukraine and Brazil. The study described in this paper enables researchers to look into readers‟ reactions to a given poem from a collective viewpoint.