Patterns of Abstraction: On Reading in Contemporary Literary Theory

Video Arts & Humanities 2025 Graduate Exhibition

Presentation by Joseph Glinbizzi

Exhibition Number 511

Abstract

There are few things that seem as self-evident, and self-evidently important, as reading. My dissertation challenges this self-evidence. I examine a common element of reading discourse: the general appeal to “reading” as a self-contained, coherent concept. This kind of casual appeal is widespread and prevails across different areas of discourse unproblematically. I contend, however, that this use of reading has an unexamined function deserving of scrutiny: it gives the impression that “reading” is, despite its vast range of possible meanings, a stable category. The problem with this impression is that it obscures the degree to which it is, in fact, an impression—and not a natural, indisputable fact about reading. It is the working, unstated presumption of reading’s grounding stability that enables its theorization. This very theorization, at the same time, obscures the presumption it relies on. This is the theoretical knot that underlies discourse about reading, and which this dissertation seeks to make explicit. While “reading” is constantly invoked with the impression of incontrovertible plainness, I highlight how this move is itself an abstraction that carries an array of conceptual repercussions. I track these repercussions through three sites of contemporary literary theory where “reading” has taken on acute importance. In each case, I show how a concerted effort by literary scholars to anchor “reading” is an obfuscating move that conceals other argumentative investments and grounding premises. In effect, my dissertation spotlights the conceptual limitations of “reading” and considers what is obscured by its conceptual privileging.

Importance

How we think and talk about reading continues to carry significant cultural weight, especially at a time when new technologies (like the increasing integration of AI into personal computing devices) reconfigure what the term means, and what factors it brings under its umbrella. It is imperative, therefore, to approach “reading” with scrupulous attention, so as to parse out the full consequences of its circulation. It is precisely because reading tends to recede into the background and function as an unambiguous concept—at the same time that ideas about it play such an influential role—that applying a critical approach to reading is necessary. My dissertation takes this approach in order to help demystify reading's role under increasingly mystifying conditions.