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Distraction: Problems of Attention in Eighteenth-Century Literature
Natalie M. Phillips
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Description for Distraction: Problems of Attention in Eighteenth-Century Literature
Hardback. She draws a direct link between the disparate theories of focus articulated in eighteenth-century literature and modern experiments in neuroscience, revealing that contemporary questions surrounding short attention spans are grounded in long conversations over the nature and limits of focus. Num Pages: 304 pages, 19, 2 colour illustrations, 17 black & white halftones. BIC Classification: 2AB; DSBD. Category: (P) Professional & Vocational. Dimension: 162 x 259 x 25. Weight in Grams: 554.
Early novel reading typically conjures images of rapt readers in quiet rooms, but commentators at the time described reading as a fraught activity, one occurring amidst a distracting cacophony that included sloshing chamber pots and wailing street vendors. Auditory distractions were compounded by literary ones as falling paper costs led to an explosion of print material, forcing prose fiction to compete with a dizzying array of essays, poems, sermons, and histories. In Distraction, Natalie M. Phillips argues that prominent Enlightenment authors-from Jane Austen and William Godwin to Eliza Haywood and Samuel Johnson-were deeply engaged with debates about the wandering mind, ... Read more
Early novel reading typically conjures images of rapt readers in quiet rooms, but commentators at the time described reading as a fraught activity, one occurring amidst a distracting cacophony that included sloshing chamber pots and wailing street vendors. Auditory distractions were compounded by literary ones as falling paper costs led to an explosion of print material, forcing prose fiction to compete with a dizzying array of essays, poems, sermons, and histories. In Distraction, Natalie M. Phillips argues that prominent Enlightenment authors-from Jane Austen and William Godwin to Eliza Haywood and Samuel Johnson-were deeply engaged with debates about the wandering mind, ... Read more
Product Details
Publisher
Johns Hopkins University Press
Format
Hardback
Publication date
2016
Condition
New
Weight
553g
Number of Pages
304
Place of Publication
Baltimore, MD, United States
ISBN
9781421420127
SKU
V9781421420127
Shipping Time
Usually ships in 7 to 11 working days
Ref
99-1
About Natalie M. Phillips
Natalie M. Phillips is an assistant professor of English at Michigan State University, where she is an affiliated faculty member of the cognitive science program and the cofounder of the Digital Humanities & Literary Cognition Lab.
Reviews for Distraction: Problems of Attention in Eighteenth-Century Literature
Thoroughly informed by engagement with 17th- and 18th-century philosophies of mind, the book is also impressive for its periodic forays into modern cognitive science... Distraction is an important addition to the literature on 18th-century fiction and cognition. Highly recommended.
Choice
It reads... as a manifesto for the possibility of a kind of research in which disciplines are combined ... Read more
Choice
It reads... as a manifesto for the possibility of a kind of research in which disciplines are combined ... Read more