Publication: Theorizing the 'Aesthetics of Reading ' using Digital Social Reading Data: A Mixed methods study Located in India
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2025-01-20
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Indian Institute of Technology, Jodhpur
Abstract
This thesis presents a study on the Digital Social Reading (DSR) phenomenon involving Indian DSR participants. DSR implies engaging over or sharing experiences of reading any book with fellow readers in a shared reading community that exists in the digital realm, mostly on social media platforms. Furthermore, the thesis also explores more philosophical concepts like aesthetic/ non-aesthetic properties and aesthetic judgment vis-a-vis a ‘book’, or what can be termed the ‘aesthetics of reading’, a term originally used in a Microsoft-MIT Media Lab study from 2005. Traditional (western) aesthetic theories, focusing on visual and performing arts, often fall short of commenting on literary art and, by extension, reading. On the other hand, while theories propounded under the Reader Response and the ‘sociology of literature’ schools indeed brought together the multifarious aspects of literature highlighting the process of personal and social production cum consumption of the literary work, it is still somewhat challenging to establish a theoretical model along the lines of aesthetic concepts. The researcher contends here that there is a need for a more empirical exploration of the reading process to shed light on the granularity (to be understood in its technical sense of the level of detail in ‘data’) of individual and collective aspects of reading. Keeping these critical issues in perspective, the study sought to answer the following research questions- • What are the central tenets of Indian DSR? o What defines reading and readership in India in the digital era? • What parameters determine the aesthetic and non-aesthetic properties that govern a reader’s judgment of a ‘book’? • Is it possible to formulate a theoretical model of the ‘aesthetics of reading’ based on empirical data? The study curated data from first interviewing adult, bilingual Indian readers, most of whom are DSR participants, living in primarily urban and semi-urban regions of the country, followed by running Likert-scale-based surveys across certain higher education institutions. Following a sequential Mixed Methods Research design, the core interview data helped develop the necessary instrument used during the supplementary survey phase. Qualitative coding and thematic analysis were used in the first data analysis phase, followed by statistical quantitative data analysis. Findings from the first phase helped us understand the significant tenets of DSR activities in the Indian context, the dynamics of private and social reading in the digital age, and how ordinary readers (i.e., not trained necessarily in literary art) perceive the aesthetic experience of reading a book. Additionally, web-scraped data from multiple popular social media platforms that are publicly available was also collected to describe the current state of Indian DSR communities in terms of their member types, number, language use, nature of activities, etc. The survey data helped consolidate findings from the core phase, paving the way for theory development. Employing the Grounded Theory method on the same mixed data, two theoretical models have been proposed- • a theoretical model of the readerly judgment and decision-making, highlighting the non-aesthetic properties and other aspects of reading a theoretical model of the dimensions of the aesthetics of reading to explain the process of aesthetic judgment and experiences associated with reading. The thesis also provides a working definition of the ‘aesthetics of reading’. Being the first of its kind to the best of the researcher’s knowledge, findings from this study not only provide a deeper insight into the happenings in the Indian DSR communities, from both private and social reading perspectives but also situate the Indian DSR communities within the global discourse on the phenomenon. The proposed theoretical models, again the first of their kind, will benefit scholars interested in digging deeper into empirical/cognitive literary studies and/or empirical aesthetics. Finally, the MMR model used in this Digital Humanities PhD research will also provide a less-explored research paradigm to future scholars.
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Ghosh, Sharanya (2020)Theorizing the 'Aesthetics of Reading ' using Digital Social Reading Data: A Mixed methods study Located in India (Doctor's thesis). Indian Institute of Technology Jodhpur