1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910493685903321

Autore

Elfenbein Andrew

Titolo

The gist of reading / / Andrew Elfenbein

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Stanford, California : , : Stanford University Press, , 2018

©2018

ISBN

1-5036-0410-1

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (256 pages)

Disciplina

028/.9

Soggetti

Books and reading - Psychological aspects

Books and reading - History - 19th century

Electronic books.

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Nota di contenuto

Front matter -- CONTENTS -- ACKNOWLEDGMENTS -- INTRODUCTION. INTERDISCIPLINARITY: I, Too, Dislike It -- CHAPTER 1. DOING WHAT COMES AUTOMATICALLY -- CHAPTER 2. THREE READERS READING -- CHAPTER 3. READING ON- AND OFFLINE -- CHAPTER 4. HARD READING -- CHAPTER 5. EASY READING -- CHAPTER 6. THAT’S ENTERTAINMENT? -- CHAPTER 7. ON INFLUENCE -- CONCLUSION. ON METHODOLOGY -- NOTES -- INDEX

Sommario/riassunto

What happens to books as they live in our long-term memory? Why do we find some books entertaining and others not? And how does literary influence work on writers in different ways? Grounded in the findings of empirical psychology, this book amends classic reader-response theory and attends to neglected aspects of reading that cannot be explained by traditional literary criticism. Reading arises from a combination of two kinds of mental work: automatic and controlled processes. Automatic processes, such as the ability to see visual symbols as words, are the result of constant practice; controlled processes, such as predicting what might occur next in a story, arise from readers' conscious use of skills and background knowledge. When we read, automatic and controlled processes work together to create the "gist" of reading, the constant interplay between these two kinds of processes. Andrew Elfenbein not only explains how we read today, but



also uses current knowledge about reading to consider readers of past centuries, arguing that understanding gist is central to interpreting the social, psychological, and political impact of literary works. The result is the first major revisionary account of reading practices in literary criticism since the 1970s.