New Approach to Literature

         Within his article, "Graphs, Maps, Trees," Franco Moretti explains the literary field's shift from the close-reading approach to the use of abstract models; specifically, he describes the benefits and drawbacks of using a quantitative approach to literature. In addition, Moretti comments on the popularity of novels and specific genres throughout different countries and time periods and portrays these patterns on the graphs he includes within his paper.

          One of the main benefits of the quantitative approach is its independence from any interpretations or perspectives from people. As a result, the analysis of literature would be solely dependent on actual facts and historical patterns displayed on the graphs, which present data about the literary trends throughout history in a organized and concise manner. From these visual representations, people are able to deduce the relationships between the popularity of a genre and the political situation within a specific country. In addition, the graphs allow for the comparison of different genres and the popularity of literary work in different countries.

         Despite the benefits of this approach, there are also several negative aspects to it as well; specifically, the absence of opinion from the analysis of literary works. Literary novels are meant to inspire different perceptions and meanings in people; the creativity of novels allows for the discovery of new perspectives and understandings of the same story by different people or even the same person after he or she rereads a novel. The literary field is one filled with imagination and should not only be limited to the analysis of patterns throughout history.

         Another interdisciplinary project would be to combine literature with the social aspects of the world. For instance, the popularity of specific genres - or novels in general - rely partly on the prevalent trends or movements during a specific period. Consequently, the relationships between people, different countries, and contrasting cultures all contribute to the varying patterns for literary pieces.

        A new way of approaching Gary Shteyngart's Super Sad True Love Story would be to analyze the technological trends within our world over different periods of time. By graphing the data that describes the rise and fall of society's use of technology, we could analyze the patterns of how influential technology has been in our society and since when; these results could reveal how technologically dependent people have become.