Re-Creating the Reader: Supporting Active Reading in Literary Research

It is evident the planned support for creativity is strongly influenced by the degree to which the creative endeavor is technology-based.

The design of such tools is being driven by research findings, design principles, and observation. High-level principles, for electronic scholarly editions that include concepts such as usability, transportability, integrity, expandability, and printability are provided in [9]. By contrast, mainstream human-computer interaction provides valuable background to specific interaction mechanisms [6]. Our current Web-based tool provides "integrity" and "transportability" through the combined encoding of all texts. The user is able to flexibly explore the work, reflect upon potential new editions of the work, and control the visual cues of what variants exist. Classroom observations of work with paper-based variants have demonstrated a strong need for tool support of this sort.

Observation of literary study and education has provided illustrations of the general approach to exploring the creative interpretation—these are largely oriented toward motivating and reinforcing valued interpretations of a text, drawing upon tacit knowledge and diverse information sources. This has emphasized that the provision of efficient access to versions and variations should not be confused with the effective exploration of the interpretations as a basis for creative understanding. Specifically, the activities involved in active reading are not exclusively computer-based—they draw upon conventional scholarly knowledge sources as well as peer feedback.

In terms of the creativity components proposed in [1], tools to support active reading provide an environment for motivation and domain knowledge. The tools help motivate experimentation with limited "risk." Enhanced motivation is likely to drive the development of an individual’s domain knowledge, and their creative skills will help determine its role and use in developing their understanding of the work. For instance, variants such as those of Wyatt’s poem can motivate an exploration of, say, related poems, and thus new ideas as to what closest reflects what Wyatt wished to express. The intended education role of active reading means the social environment is unlikely to be a constraining influence upon the process.