This course examines the problem of attention in the American literary tradition. At a moment often described in terms of the commodification of focus, we will ask how American literary texts represent or interrogate attention. We will situate literary works within broader theoretical conversations about “deep” and “hyper” attention, the “attention economy,” and the rise of attention deficit disorders. Drawing on these broader theoretical and societal conversations, we will trace how American writers have foregrounded attentional problems across different historical moments. The course will place close reading at its center, treating it not simply as an interpretive method but as a discipline of attention. By combining sustained close reading with interdisciplinary inquiry, the course thus invites students to reflect on their own attentional habits while developing rigorous analytical and conceptual skills to address today’s “attention crisis.”
- Enseignant·e: Michael Boyden