HOBAR/DH_OU Seminar Series 3

#ireadeverywhere: Performing Readerliness Online

Speaker: Bronwen Thomas (University of Bournemouth)

The formation of diverse reading communities on the internet and social media has led to a resurgence of interest in social reading (e.g. Rehberg Sedo and Fuller, 2013; Lang 2012).  Often, this takes the form of studies of dedicated reading groups or communities (Thomas and Round 2016) with the focus being on analysing the interpretations produced and the ways in which a sense of community is fostered and maintained over time.  However, in this paper I will be exploring how self-identifying as a reader and performing readerliness can take many different forms, particularly on social media where engagement can be fleeting and fluid, and where acts of reading are often expressed in purely visual and seemingly superficial terms.