Reader reception of Bernardine Evaristo's 'Girl, Woman, Other'. A distant and close reading approach

Seminar paper from the year 2020 in the subject Didactics for the subject English - Literature, Works, grade: 1,0, University of Freiburg (English Department), course: Distant Reading, language: English, abstract: This paper combines empirical analysis of actual reader reception data with a close reading of reception data as well as the literary work. The first chapter provides essential theoretical background focusing on distant reading and cognitive/empirical reception as well as the guidance of reader reception through empathy, all with a particular focus on character representation. Chapter two analyses 300 goodreads reviews on Girl, Woman, Other through distant reading to find out what the contemporary reader focuses on. The 2019 Booker Prize winning novel Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo has been received extremely well on goodreads. With an average rating of 4.42 out of 5 stars, it compares to all-time favorites like the Lord of the Rings (4.51/5) or Game of Thrones (4.45/5) series. A distant reading of 300 selected goodreads reviews on Girl, Woman, Other revealed that the Booker Prize was frequently mentioned in their reviews. The award serves as 'attention booster' for the, up until then, to mainstream readership only lesser known Evaristo. Further, a comparative keyword analysis of the selected reviews and the respective The Guardian review revealed that goodreads readers tend to focus more on characters and review on a more personal/emotional level. Therefore, Girl, Woman, Other is as successful since it establishes a personal relationship between narrative and readers. It was thus the aim of this paper to analyze the respective narrative strategies which manage to establish this connection through both distant as well as close reading strategies.