Measuring literary experience: Comment on Jacobs (2016):

Dixon, Peter; Bortolussi, Marisa

doi:10.1075/ssol.5.2.03dix

Article published in:

Scientific Study of Literature
Vol. 5:2 (2015) ► pp. 178–182

Measuring literary experience

Comment on Jacobs (2016)

Peter Dixon | University of Alberta, Canada

Marisa Bortolussi

Jacobs (2016) raises a number of insightful and provocative points about the study of literary experience, including the importance of development, the promise of process models, and the role of quantitative methods. In the present comment, we first elaborate on one aspect of the literary experience that seems to be neglected by his introductory comments, namely, that that experience is not limited to the act of reading but can easily extend to long after the reading is completed. Based on this insight, we then offer an analysis of the types of measurements that might be used in the empirical study of literary processing. While this analysis is not necessarily incompatible with Jacob’s discussion, we believe that it offers several new insights that are not readily apparent.

Published online: 28 July 2016
https://doi.org/10.1075/ssol.5.2.03dix

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