Contemporary Fictions of Attention
Subtitle: Reading and Distraction in the Twenty-First Century
Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
Published: Aug 09, 2018
Language: eng
Format: hardcover
Number of pages: 224
ISBN-13: 9781474282611
Description: "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. Contemporary Fictions of Attention locates a common interest in attention within 21st-century fiction and connects this interest to a series of debates surrounding ethics, temporality, the everyday, boredom, work, and self-discipline in contemporary culture."--Bloomsbury Publishing.
Notes: Source title: Contemporary Fictions of Attention: Reading and Distraction in the Twenty-First Century