Project Summary
Literature knows a lot about attention – how it is gained and retained, how it is mastered and manipulated. As such it can contribute significantly to current research in interdisciplinary attention studies and offer insight into attention regimes we live by. LitAttention explores this fundamentally under-researched knowledge domain of literature about attention and attention politics by analysing ‘literary attention’ in short fiction.
Integrating approaches from (educational) psychology, computational linguistics, and literary and cultural studies, LitAttention explores the poetics and politics of attention in short fiction, develops methodological and conceptual frameworks for examining literary attention, and introduces the important role of literary attention for education.
The project is structured into several subprojects. Current subprojects examine attention in 19th-century short fiction (SP 1), the short story as attention narrative (SP 2), literary attention in educational short fiction (SP 3), and develop computational models for analysing literary attention (SP 4). Two further subprojects are due to start in 2025/2026.
Team
Events
LitAttention will organise a series of events, including (online) transdiciplinary attention colloquia and workshops. Watch this space for announcements!
Join the LitAttention team!
There are currently no open positions. External researchers who would like to join the research team with own funding, please contact the PI.