Abstract
<jats:p>The Economies of Attention: Literature, Distraction, and the Digital Self examines how literature and the reading self are reshaped in an age when attention has become a scarce, fragmented, and commodified resource. Building on Herbert Simon’s insight that information abundance produces attention poverty, the book situates contemporary reading within the broader attention economy, drawing on thinkers such as Georg Franck, Yves Citton, and Erving Goffman. It explores how digital platforms accelerate distraction, transform self-presentation into measurable performance, and bind identity to metrics of visibility, validation, and circulation. The study then turns to literary history, showing that distraction is not merely a technological problem but a long-standing cultural and aesthetic concern, visible in works from nineteenth-century realism to the modern city novel. In its analysis of the platform era, the book considers the algorithmic gaze, the commodification of focus, and the challenges facing deep reading. Ultimately, it argues that literature is not a victim of the attention economy but a vital resource for attentional agency, critical reflection, and the recovery of an authentic digital self.</jats:p>