Franco Moretti
Moretti presents a new idea to us. He proposes the idea of distant reading. What that means is instead of reading the whole literary text, we only read a small amount and focus more on secondary sources of the text. We look to things that other people wrote about the text. In doing this, we will be able to focus more the theme and other literary devices that are in the text. We will be able to learn more about the text. Moretti points out that the US is known for doing close readings. He says it would be hard for us to change but it would be beneficial. I would have never thought about doing it the way he suggests, but I actually think it might be a good idea. When I think about it, I learn way more about a piece when I do a paper on it than I do if I just read it. So, it does make sense. Here is an article in the New York Times about distant reading.
