def _parse_list_of_strings(input_str):
    """
    Parse a text string as a list of strings.

    Parameters
    ----------
    input_str : str
        The input string to be processed.

    Returns
    -------
    files : list of str
        The list of strings representing input files.

    """
    # use basic string processing to extract file paths
    # remove brackets
    files = input_str[1:-1]

    # split on commas
    files = files.split(',')

    # strip surrounding spaces and quotes; cast as str type
    files = [str(f.strip()[1:-1]) for f in files]

    return files