Welcome to The Postmodern Generator project! This repository contains the source code for a text generator that produces postmodern-style academic essays with sophisticated theoretical framing, proper citations, and thematic coherence. This README file will guide you through the setup, usage, and contribution process for the project.
The Postmodern Generator is a tool designed to generate text that mimics the style of postmodern academic writing. It creates sophisticated theoretical essays complete with citations, dialectical progressions, and self-referential elements characteristic of postmodern discourse. This project is inspired by the Dada Engine run The Postmodernism Generator that was developed by Andrew C. Bulhak. You can learn more about the original Dada Engine here and see a web-based preview of Bulhak's The Postmodernism Generator here.
- Complete Essay Generation: Produces fully-formed academic essays with title, abstract, introduction, body sections, conclusion, notes, and works cited sections
- Theoretical Sophistication: Incorporates postmodern concepts, philosophers, and theoretical frameworks
- MLA 9 Compliant Citations: Generates proper in-text citations and formatted works cited sections
- Thematic Coherence: Maintains conceptual and thematic unity throughout the essay
- Dialectical Progressions: Develops ideas through dialectical movement
- Metafictional Elements: Includes self-referential passages typical of postmodern writing
- Academic Abstracts: Generates sophisticated abstracts with keywords and theoretical framing
- Proper Formatting: Handles capitalization, italicization, and academic conventions
- Reproducible Output: Optional random seed for generating consistent results
- Lightweight and Efficient: Does not rely on large language models, ensuring quick and resource-efficient text generation
To install the Postmodern Generator, follow these steps:
- Ensure you have Python 3.8 or higher installed. You can download it from python.org.
- Clone the repository:
git clone https://github.com/egemulayim/postmodern_generator.git
- Navigate to the project directory:
cd postmodern_generator - Install the required dependencies:
pip install -r requirements.txt
To generate a postmodern essay, execute the following command in your terminal:
python main.pyTo generate an essay with a specific random seed (for reproducibility, each new essay generated with the same seed retains the exact same content but alters the cited works in the bibliography section due to the related code being executed separately than the body of the text, which causes an irrelevancy and is actually an unwanted feature that will be removed in future updates):
python main.py 42The generator will output a complete academic essay including:
- Title with theoretical framing
- Abstract with keywords
- Introduction with guiding questions
- Several body sections with dialectical development
- Conclusion with metafictional elements
- Notes section
- Works cited in MLA 9 format
The following features and improvements are planned for future releases:
- Enhanced Output Formats: Add options to generate in HTML or LaTeX formatting
- Additional Citation Styles: Support for APA, Chicago, and possibly other academic citation formats
- UI Improvements: Develop a web-based user interface for easier interaction
- Advanced Configuration: More extensive options to customize output length, complexity, and thematic focus
- API Integration: Build an API to allow integration with other tools and services
- Expanded Philosopher Database: Add more contemporary theorists and their key concepts
- Improved Semantic Coherence: Further enhance thematic unity and realistic conceptual relationships
Contributions to The Postmodern Generator project are welcome! To contribute, follow these steps:
- Fork the repository.
- Create a new branch for your feature or bugfix:
git checkout -b feature-name
- Make your changes and commit them:
git commit -m "Description of your changes" - Push your changes to your fork:
git push origin feature-name
- Create a pull request on the main repository.
- Capitalization Inconsistencies: Occasional capitalization issues with first words of sentences, proper nouns, and philosopher names
- Redundant Phrases: The generated text may sometimes include redundant use of synonymous words and phrases
- Terminology Classification: Some words appear in both concepts and terms categories, which may lead to inconsistent italicization
- Citation Format Variations: Minor inconsistencies in citation formatting might occur
- Citation Discrepancies: Minor discrepancies in in-text citations might occur, where quotes are attributed to authors properly but may not be consistently cited with relevant paranthetical citation information
- Thematic Coherence at Scale: For very long essays, thematic coherence may diminish in later sections
This project is licensed under the MIT License. See the LICENSE file for details.
Special thanks to Andrew C. Bulhak, the creator of The Postmodernism Generator, for the inspiration and foundational work that made this project possible. This project builds on that legacy to create a more sophisticated, coherent, and academically authentic text generator for postmodern discourse.