Too Long, Didn’t Read: Close & Hyperreading of Literary Texts & the Modulation of Attention

In the information age, technological developments have drastically increased the amount of texts available through different media. This has led to a shift in reading habits from close reading, sustained and focused attention to the text, to hyperreading, non-linear, computer-assisted modes of reading such as skimming and scanning. Consequently, some fear, young people are losing the ability to concentrate. Many scholars align literary reading with close or deep reading and maintain a strict binary conception of this mode and hyperreading at the opposite pole.

TDLR proposes that (a) readers tend to modulate between the two modes, that are more integrated than is often assumed and that (b) this is especially true for literary reading, as literary texts demand of their readers to switch between close and hyperreading.

Does reading literature help to make us better at allocating and modulating attention? What elements in literature prompt readers to pay close attention, and what elements invite a more distracted reading? Are experienced literary readers more skilled at determining when to zoom in and close read, and when to skim? And is this skill transferable to non-literary (information) environments and texts?

This study will combine textual analysis with questionnaires, eye tracking experiments, and interviews to answer these questions. It will be carried out at UC Santa Barbara’s English Department & Transcriptions Centre (Sept 2020-March 2022); The Norwegian Reading Center of the University of Stavanger (March 2022-Sept 2022) & Tilburg School of Humanities & Digital Sciences (Sept 2022-Sept 2023).