Literary Attention in Short Fiction, or: What Literature Knows About Attention and Attention Politics

The project is funded by an ERC Advanced Grant (LitAttention, 101141722)

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



Dieses Bild zeigt Sibylle Baumbach

 

Prof. Dr. Sibylle Baumbach (Project leader)

Sibylle Baumbach is professor of English literatures and cultures. LitAttention builds on her previous research on literature, attention, and fascination as well as on her expertise in literary theory and interdisciplinary approaches to literature. She is Principal Investigator of LitAttention and focuses on developments of the short story as attention narrative (SP 2).




Dieses Bild zeigt Hannah Armour

Hannah Armour (Doctoral Researcher)
 
Hannah Armour is a PhD student with a Masters from the University of Oxford and a BA from Royal Holloway, University of London. Her PhD thesis, looking at the relationship between the role of attention and the rise of short fiction between 1800 and 1880, will form part of the LitAttention project (SP 1). Her research examines the methods by which short fiction forms cater themselves to changing attention economies and environments, especially regarding the emergence of genres such as those that centralise discussions of the educational, psychological, detective and gothic.
 


Dieses Bild zeigt Christy Gu

Dr. Christy J. Gu (Postdoctoral research fellow)

Christy J. Gu focuses on identifying stylistic devices in short fiction that are related to attention manipulation and using empirical methods to examine their potential effects. Additionally, she explores how and to what extent these identified patterns may influence attention from the perspective of educational psychology.

 

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.


Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Research Council Executive Agency. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.

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