Reading Literature in a Digital Culture

Objective

The digitisation of culture is having a negative effect on the amount of time spent reading literary texts. Literacy has been identified as a key factor in the EU’s growth strategy (Europe 2020) and the improving of reading skills is an issue to be addressed urgently. To face the issue of reading in a digital culture, we need to study the experience of reading, also considering that millennials are a different kind of readers: they are not attracted by traditional printed books, therefore we need to understand what kind of readers of literature they can be and design paths that can bring them to the experience of reading literature. My hypothesis is that we can use digital media to make reading more appealing. The challenge is precisely how to do that without introducing further elements of distraction. The focus of this project is on the experience of reading literary texts in the context of a digital ecosystem, and aims at answering to the questions: A. How can we use digital tools to better understand how digital culture is transforming youth’s engagement with literature? B. How to improve the engagement with literature in an era dominated by digital culture?
In order to set the ground for later more comprehensive answers, my project will focus on two kinds of Digital Literary Experience: online social reading (a form of reader participation in the flowing process of text production-reception) and literary digital environments (simulated spaces created using one or more digital devices in order to provide a multimodal experience of literature). The feasibility of the project depends on the complementary training I will receive in South Korea and Italy. At Sogang University I will have the opportunity to learn how to develop digital environments designed specifically for reading literature. At the University of Milan-Bicocca, I will improve my knowledge of how to do research focused on the reading experience, from an evolutionary perspective.

Fields of science

• natural sciencesbiological sciencesecologyecosystems

Keywords

• online social reading
• literary experience
• reading
• virtual reality
• digital humanities

Programme(s)

• H2020-EU.1.3. - EXCELLENT SCIENCE - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions Main Programme
• H2020-EU.1.3.2. - Nurturing excellence by means of cross-border and cross-sector mobility

Topic(s)

• MSCA-IF-2017 - Individual Fellowships

Call for proposal

H2020-MSCA-IF-2017

Funding Scheme

Coordinator

Partners (1)