THE ART OF WRITING, READING AND LIVING - BETWEEN TRADITION AND MODERNITY

The aim of the present study is to investigate and appraise the art of writing, reading and living, as challenged by the amazing speed of life, new patterns of society and most recent technological changes and advances, and subject to a law of diminishing returns. What is the function of literature nowadays in an increasingly hyper-connected (technologically) though alienated and disrupted (individually) society? The transition and adaptation of culture production and consumption from the printed age to the digital age, from Gutenberg to Google, has triggered ample and heated debate about: the recent challenges addressed to the book industry -which has turned into a business, especially in terms of marketing and promotion; the traditional concept of the book which is undergoing essential reshaping (e-books); the encouragement and dissemination of cultural interaction (cultural blogs); the accessibility and appeal of new forms of communication nowadays (blogs as an alternative and/or substitute for direct communication); as well as the emergence of technological novelty (i. e. new reading supports, IPAD tablet computer, IMAX Digital Theatre System).