Unsigned Play by Milan Kundera? An Authorship Attribution Study

TL;DR

This study employs supervised machine learning to determine the authorship of the play 'Juro Janošik', providing strong evidence that Milan Kundera authored it, despite it being published under a different name.

Contribution

The paper introduces a machine learning approach to resolve authorship attribution for a disputed play, specifically attributing 'Juro Janošik' to Milan Kundera.

Findings

Machine learning strongly supports Kundera's authorship

Authorship attribution methodology applied to theatrical works

Provides evidence against the hypothesis of a different author.

Abstract

In addition to being a widely recognised novelist, Milan Kundera has also authored three pieces for theatre: The Owners of the Keys (Majitel\'e kl\'i\v{c}\r{u}, 1961), The Blunder (Pt\'akovina, 1967), and Jacques and his Master (Jakub a jeho p\'an, 1971). In recent years, however, the hypothesis has been raised that Kundera is the true author of a fourth play: Juro J\'ano\v{s}\'ik, first performed in a 1974 production under the name of Karel Steigerwald, who was Kundera's student at the time. In this study, we make use of supervised machine learning to settle the question of authorship attribution in the case of Juro J\'ano\v{s}\'ik, with results strongly supporting the hypothesis of Kundera's authorship.