earticle

영어

This paper explores Ali Smith's 2016 novel Autumn, focusing on how hyper reading, —a mode employed when reading texts on screens, can function as an adaptive, ethically generative mode of reading in an age of informational excess. While previous scholarship has focused on the novel's political aspects and experimental form, the ethical implications of its digital-text-like structure and hyper reading remain underexplored. Drawing on Joan Tronto's ethics of care and N. Katherine Hayle's positive take on hyper reading, this paper argues that Smith reconceptualizes hyper reading as a reparative and relational practice. The first section analyzes how character's everyday hyper reading, such as skimming, scanning, and juxtaposing multiple texts, enables relationality, connection, and sustained care. The second section turns to the novel's form, which resembles a digital text with its short chapters, nonlinear narrative, and dense intertextuality. This form invites readers to hyper read Autumn, training them to navigate fragmentation without disengagement. By modeling how fragmented attention can foster connection, Autumn positions hyper reading not as a superficial or distracting practice, but as a method attuned to contemporary information landscapes.