Contemporary Fictions of Attention Reading and Distraction in the Twenty–First Century

Free Download Alice Bennett, "Contemporary Fictions of Attention: Reading and Distraction in the Twenty-First Century"
English | ISBN: 147428261X | 2018 | 224 pages | PDF | 1479 KB
With the supposed shortening of our attention spans, what future is there for fiction in the age of the internet? Contemporary Fictions of Attention rejects this discourse of distraction-crisis which suggests that the future of reading is in peril, and instead finds that contemporary writers construct 'fictions of attention' that find some value in states or moments of inattention. Through discussion of work by a diverse selection of writers, including Joshua Cohen, Ben Lerner, Tom McCarthy, Ali Smith, Zadie Smith, and David Foster Wallace, this book identifies how fiction prompts readers to become peripherally aware of their own attention.