Federico Pianzola: The Computational Study of Reader Response

Federico Pianzola is Assistant Professor of Computational Humanities at the University of Groningen (Netherlands) and Principal Investigator of the GOLEM project (Graphs and Ontologies for Literary Evolution Models). He’s especially interested in how digital media affect how people read. His book Digital Social Reading: Sharing Fiction in the 21st Century was published by MIT Press in January 2025.

Abstract:

Collections of printed books have been developed and maintained for centuries, but ordinary readers’ responses to books have rarely been documented in a systematic way. As a consequence, we know very little about what people think and feel while reading, and about the impact that books have on them. However, in the 21st century, there is a wealth of data coming from digital platforms used for reading or posting book reviews that offer an unprecedented insight into the lives of readers. In this presentation, by comparing various platforms and languages, I show what online comments and book reviews can tell us about how teenagers read and what impact fiction has on their lives. I use computational methods that allow me to extend the analysis to thousands of comments and reviews, revealing general patterns and differences across platforms, reading communities, languages, and cultures.

The seminar will be held in English.