{'fraction_non_alphanumeric': 0.03888888888888889, 'fraction_numerical': 0.0, 'mean_word_length': 5.774436090225564, 'pattern_counts': {'":': 0, '<': 0, '<?xml version=': 0, '>': 0, 'https://': 0, 'lorem ipsum': 0, 'www.': 0, 'xml': 0}, 'pii_count': 0, 'substrings_counts': 0, 'word_list_counts': {'cursed_substrings.json': 0, 'profanity_word_list.json': 0, 'sexual_word_list.json': 0, 'zh_pornsignals.json': 0}}
Varieties of Digital Literary Studies: Micro, Macro, Meso

Digital literary studies constitutes a broad church. However, the field tends to divide into, at one pole, quantitative, macro-level studies of historical literary texts and, at the other pole, close-readings of individual born-digital literary works, typically hyper-avant-garde in conception. There is, in practice, little interplay between the two groupings. This article sketches a proposed ‘meso’ space in between the two extant levels. Drawing on methods from book history, literary sociology, cultural studies, and digital media theory, this mid-level approach examines digital technology’s role in recasting the institutions of contemporary mainstream literature: the impact of powerful new digital intermediaries;the blurring of author/reader/reviewer roles;and the continued existence of print artefacts within online environments.