Reading Literature in a Digital Culture

Project Information

READIT

Grant agreement ID: 792849

DOI

10.3030/792849

Project terminated on 31 October 2021

EC signature date 26 July 2018

Start date 1 December 2018

End date 30 November 2021

Funded under

• EXCELLENT SCIENCE - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions

Total cost

€ 268 741,80

EU contribution

€ 268 741,80

Coordinated by

UNIVERSITA' DEGLI STUDI DI MILANO-BICOCCA
Italy

Periodic Reporting for period 2 - READIT (Reading Literature in a Digital Culture)

Reporting period: 2020-12-01 to 2021-11-30

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

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 younger generations 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, the READIT project focuses 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).

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

I conducted experiments with youth of different nationalities, using newly designed virtual reality prototypes for reading/listening to literature, and with digital tools for the social annotation of texts. I also analyzed existing digital platforms for social reading, highlighting their potential for increasing engegement with literature.
I published several articles, presented my work at conferences, and a monograph summarizing the results of my work has been positively evaluated by 3 external reviewers for MIT Press.

These are the scientific publications related to the project:
• Pianzola, Federico. 2021. Digital Social Reading: Sharing Fiction in the 21st Century. (MIT Press open peer review)
• Rebora, Simone, Peter Boot, Federico Pianzola, Brigitte Gasser, J. Berenike Herrmann, Maria Kraxenberger, Moniek Kuijpers, et al. 2021. “Digital Humanities and Digital Social Reading”. Digital Scholarship in the Humanities.
• Pianzola, Federico, Maurizio Toccu, and Marco Viviani. 2021. “Readers’ Engagement through Digital Social Reading on Twitter: The TwLetteratura Case Study”. Library Hi Tech
• Pianzola, Federico, Giuseppe Riva, Karin Kukkonen, and Fabrizia Mantovani. 2021. “Presence, Flow, and Narrative Absorption: An Interdisciplinary Theoretical Exploration with a New Spatiotemporal Integrated Model Based on Predictive Processing”. Open Research Europe, 1.28: 1-25.
• Pianzola, Federico. 2021. “Presence, flow, and narrative absorption questionnaires: A scoping review”. Open Research Europe, 1.11: 1-12.
• Rhee, Boa, Federico Pianzola, Nayea Oh, Gangta Choi, and Jungho Kim. 2021. “Remediating Tradition with Technology: A Case Study of ‘From Tangible to Intangible: A Media Showcase of Kisa Chin p’yori Chinch’an Uigwe’”. Digital Creativity, January: 1-15. (Preprint here)
• Pianzola, Federico, Simone Rebora, and Gerhard Lauer. 2020. “Wattpad as a resource for literary studies. Quantitative and qualitative examples of the importance of digital social reading and readers’ comments in the margins”. PLoS ONE 15.1: e0226708.
• Pianzola, Federico, and Wayne de Fremery. 2020. “Designing a Virtual Reality Environment for Reading Literature: Prelude to an Experiment with Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland”. The Materiality of Reading. Eds. Theresa Schilhab and Sue Walker. Aarhus University Press. 67–93.
• Pianzola, Federico, Katalin Bálint, and Jessica Weller. 2019. “Virtual Reality as a Tool for Promoting Reading via Enhanced Narrative Absorption and Empathy”. Scientific Study of Literature 9.2: 162–93.

Below is a detailed list of the dissemination activities done:
Date Location Type Details
14-15 April 2021 Online Dissemination Invited presentation “Narrative absorption and enactive predictive processing” at the Symposium on Reading in a dialogical-embodied perspective (U. of Southern Denmark)
19-22 May 2021 Online Dissemination Presentation “An Empirical Study of Teenage Readers’ Co-Construction of Teen Fiction Narrative” at ISSN 2021
30 June – 2 July 2021 Online Dissemination Presentation “Presence, Flow, and Narrative Absorption: A New Integrated Model based on Predictive Processing” Art and Affect in the Predictive Mind (U. of York, UK)
26-30 July 2021 Online Dissemination Presentation “Cultural capital and digital reading on Wattpad: The case of Italian readers“ at SHARP2021
22-23 September 2021 Online Dissemination Presentation “Narrative, fiction, and predictive processing” at AETNA 2021
17 November 2021 Online Communication Video presentation of the monograph “Digital Social Reading” during a 1 hour streaming on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OgqCpRs0C28

In addition, the use of Twitter to disseminate and communicate my research allowed me to reach more than 30,000 people.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

The READIT project is one of the first attempts to empirically test the potential of virtual reality to promote reading among youth. Moreover, I contributed with empirical evidence to the debate about the drawdbacks of digital reading, showing that the intersubjective exchange enabled by digital social reading platforms can offer many benefits to readers. The mainstream narrative is that young people don’t read much, but I showed that there is an abundant kind of reading which is happening on digital platforms like Wattpad and fanfiction websites. The results of the READIT project provide evidence of reading practices that should be taken into account when reporting about the cultural activities in which youth engages.
I have published a monograph summarizing my research and indicating a new framework for the investigation of reading practices in the 21st century. My theoretical and practical suggestions can be useful for cultural institutions promoting reading and teaching literacy, since I will provide guidelines about how to use digital and social media to promote reading and orient existing interest for reading towards a more effective development of literacy and critical thinking. Non-institutional reading platforms are particularly important to foster more inclusive reading practices and fight inequalities with respect to the mediatic representation of gender, race, and sexual orientation.

virtual reality prototype for reading