I wanted to map the idea of ambiguity. I based this exercise on William Empson's formulations of ambiguity in his Seven Types of Ambiguity (1930). First I diagrammed his seven types using the yEd program. Then I visualized via Gephi the ambiguity of the word "white" in Langston Hughes' "Theme for English B."

and tested if this Gephi visualization confirms or complicates Empson's categorical definitions of ambiguity.

Below are the yEd diagram of Empson's Ambiguity and the Gephi visualization of the ambiguity of "white."

Looking at this visualization, one can argue that "white" cannot be restricted to any single type of Empson's ambiguities. For example, "white" can fulfill the sixth type: since the speaker communicates in such a deliberately casual, general, and non-specific way, the reader reacts by adding his own interpretations. "White" can also follow the 7th type: though "white" as "White American" can mean "not being me [the speaker an African American]," "white" can mean "part of the instructor," and the speaker ends up saying that he is "part" of the instructor, so the meaning of "white=not me" comes to contradict the meaning of "white=instructor=me."

I thought diagramming Empson's types helped me summarize his ideas into short points, and mapping "white's" ambiguity in Hughes' poem troubled and complicated Empson's classifications. This mapping of "white" works like a spatial close-reading that reveals a branching network, and in turn ambiguity is visualized as a network.