Heather Blatt: Participatory Reading in Late-Medieval England. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2018.

• Nicole Meier

Although the dominant focus in medieval studies has been on the role of the writer, there are several studies on medieval reading practices, but Blatt wants to zoom in on the practice(s) of reader participation. In her book she sets out to discuss different modes of reader participation and the ways in which writers could be aware of and anticipate such participation. Writers could thus facilitate or restrict and therefore shape reader agency. Blatt proposes to access medieval reading practices using the insights of digital media studies, since practices typical of digital culture (such as open emendation, non-linear apprehension, immersion) can also be detected in late medieval texts.