Is a picture worth a thousand words?: Effects of foregrounded multimodal and narrative features

Multimodal novels rely extensively on the interaction of verbal and visual codes to construct meaning. It has been theorized that multimodal features of the multimodal novel shape our reading-induced imagery and our emotional reactions while reading. However, there is a lack of empirical testing behind existing approaches to multimodal novels. The current study aims to empirically investigate the effects of foregrounded multimodal features and foregrounded narrative features on reading-induced imagery and readers’ emotional reactions in the reading process of multimodal novels. The results disconfirmed that differences between unusual and usual mind styles were traceable to multimodal vs. monomodal versions of these selected narratives. Reading about unusual mindstyles, instead of multimodal features, is suggested to have effects on changing perception of self and others, and thus on transformative reading

Books’ Impact in Digital Social Reading: Towards a Conceptual and Methodological Framework

The aim of this panel is to debate the challenges and opportunities offered by online reviews for measuring the impact that books can have on readers (Boot and Koolen, 2020). The focus is specifically on culture- and language- specificity, thus we will compare insights from the analysis of Korean, English, Italian, German, and Dutch reviews. Digital social reading platforms – like Goodreads, Lovelybooks, or Naver Books – host millions of reviews and, thus, offer unique possibilities for research into literature, reading, and reader response (Rebora et al., 2021; Walsh and Antoniak, 2021). Computational tools are especially relevant, given the large amount of available data, but finding associations between textual features, cultural conventions (e.g. genre), and cognitive, affective, and aesthetic responses is not a straightforward task (Koolen et al., 2020; Pianzola et al., 2020). By comparing research done with different platforms, datasets, and languages, we aim at improving the methods that we employ, in a dialogue involving both data-driven insight and theoretical reflection on literature and readers. Questions that we will address are: what aspects of a book’s impact on readers can reviews help us to measure? What are the limitations of online book reviews for studying impact? How do we know to what extent these review texts reflect the actual reading experiences? What are unwanted, confounding influences (e.g. reviewers projecting a favourable self-image, socially desired responses, aspects of identity formation, fake reviews). How do online book reviews differ from experimentally controlled gathering of reader responses (lab studies, questionnaires, psychologically validated scales) (Lendvai et al., 2020)? How do platforms for reviewing and social interactions around books influence reviewers and their perceptions? How do reviewers compare to other readers? To answer such questions, we will present four case studies dealing with different languages and cultures, followed by an open discussion of the results and methods, reflecting on their generalizability, efficacy and limitations

What is literature for? The role of transformative reading

The question of what literature is for—if there is a purpose—is not new. Since the beginning of literary theory as a field of study, the debate has been long and complex and is still ongoing. This article offers a reflection on the concept of purpose in the development of literary theories up to the advent of the cognitive turn in the twenty-first century, when empirical studies of literary reading began to proliferate. The paper argues that discussions on the question of purpose have changed from no purpose to pragmatic and later to more existential purposes. It places transformative reading in the center of this debate and reflects on the results of the series of empirical studies conducted so far. The paper focuses on the implications and uses of transformative reading in social contexts. It concludes by discussing how empirical work in this area suggests new conceptual distinctions that could contribute to theorizing about purpose in literary studies more generally. It also indicates what lies ahead in terms of challenges while pointing at new research directions

Learning from literature: empirical research on readers in schools and at the workplace

Learning from literature: empirical research on readers in schools and at the workplace

When We’re Coming From: What Would an HIV Doula Do? on Pandemic Time(s)

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Distant Reading in Portuguese: A Summary of the First Meeting: A Summary of the First Meeting

Este artigo pretende refletir sobre o Primeiro Encontro sobre Leitura Distante em Português que aconteceu na Universidade de Oslo a 27 e 28 de outubro de 2019. Elaboramos este texto com o intuito de disseminar os assuntos e ideias discutidos nesses dois dias de encontro. Após uma descrição abreviada de todas as intervenções, destacamos os principais pontos de discussão, assim como algumas sugestões avançadas pelos participantes, na esperança de alargar o debate sobre leitura distante dentro da comunidade de língua portuguesa

Leitura Distante em Português: resumo do primeiro encontro

Este artigo pretende refletir sobre o Primeiro Encontro sobre Leitura Distante em Português que aconteceu na Universidade de Oslo a 27 e 28 de outubro de 2019. Elaboramos este texto com o intuito de disseminar os assuntos e ideias discutidos nesses dois dias de encontro. Após uma descrição abreviada de todas as intervenções, destacamos os principais pontos de discussão, assim como algumas sugestões avançadas pelos participantes, na esperança de alargar o debate sobre leitura distante dentro da comunidade de língua portuguesa