Lay Literary Theory and Its Investigation through Digital Social Reading

Abstract The article outlines a promising yet underdeveloped field of research: lay literary theory. This field encompasses, among other things, lay readers’ conceptions of terms such as ›literature‹ as well as their beliefs about how literary works should be interpreted. The article first clarifies the concept of lay literary theory by proposing the following definition: a lay literary theory is a system of terms and propositions that (1) serves to categorize, connect, explain, predict, or interpret literature-related phenomena; (2) abstracts from individual instances; (3) extends beyond what has already been observed empirically; and (4) is accepted by a person who does not work in a literature-related profession and does not possess expert-level knowledge about literature. The article then reviews existing research on the topic. Although a substantial body of relevant work already exists, including psychological research on reading beliefs and didactic research on literature-related assumptions held by students and teachers, this scholarship remains fragmented and leaves considerable scope for further investigation. The article next explains why lay literary theory deserves greater scholarly attention. Lay literary theories may be surprisingly widespread, likely shape how readers experience and understand literature, and serve important functions for those who hold them. Moreover, investigating lay literary theory can improve the public communication of literary knowledge and provide valuable impulses for academic literary theory itself. Finally, the article considers how lay literary theory can be studied empirically. It argues that the analysis of Digital Social Reading documents, such as online book reviews, offers a particularly fruitful approach and concludes with a brief proof of concept demonstrating how lay literary-theoretical terminology can be investigated using reviews from the German-language review platform LovelyBooks.