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• Published: 03 November 2021

The role of literary fiction in facilitating social science research

• Bryan Yazell   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-2263-3488 1 , 2 ,
• Klaus Petersen 2 , 3 ,
• Paul Marx 3 , 4 , 5 &
• Patrick Fessenbecker 6 , 7  

Humanities and Social Sciences Communications volume  8 , Article number:  261 ( 2021 ) Cite this article

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Scholars in literature departments and the social sciences share a broadly similar interest in understanding human development, societal norms, and political institutions. However, although literature scholars are likely to reference sources or concepts from the social sciences in their published work, the line of influence is much less likely to appear the other way around. This unequal engagement provides the occasion for this paper, which seeks to clarify the ways social scientists might draw influence from literary fiction in the development of their own work as academics: selecting research topics, teaching, and drawing inspiration for projects. A qualitative survey sent to 13,784 social science researchers at 25 different universities asked participants to describe the influence, if any, reading works of literary fiction plays in their academic work or development. The 875 responses to this survey provide numerous insights into the nature of interdisciplinary engagement between these disciplines. First, the survey reveals a skepticism among early-career researchers regarding literature’s social insights compared to their more senior colleagues. Second, a significant number of respondents recognized literary fiction as playing some part in shaping their research interests and expanding their comprehension of subjects relevant to their academic scholarship. Finally, the survey generated a list of literary fiction authors and texts that respondents acknowledged as especially useful for understanding topics relevant to the study of the social sciences. Taken together, the results of the survey provide a fuller account of how researchers engage with literary fiction than can be found in the pages of academic journals, where strict disciplinary conventions might discourage out-of-the-field engagement.

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Introduction

Interdisciplinary research has become the buzzword of university managers and funding agencies. It is said that researchers need to think out of the box, be innovative and agile, and—last but not least—be curious about other disciplines in order to solve the complex challenges of the modern world. The tension inevitably generated by calls for more interdisciplinary work between university administrators on the one side and researchers on the other risks obscuring a fundamental question: what exactly is new about interdisciplinary research in the first place? For all the handwringing about interdisciplinarity, there is no clear consensus about what the boundaries of a given discipline are in the first place. Debates have waged over the last several decades about the divisions between the sciences and the humanities, their origins, and possible methods for rectifying them. Perhaps most famously, British scientist and novelist C.P. Snow identified “two cultures” in the academy separated by “a gulf of mutual incomprehension” ( 1961 , p. 4). According to Snow, “literary intellectuals” and “physical scientists” not only distrusted each other’s pronouncements, but fundamentally saw the world differently ( 1961 , p.4, 6). Although this assessment has been influential in framing these respective disciplines for decades, its presentation of a binary division between the hard sciences and the arts does not account for the fields of study with overlapping interests and, at times, borrowed methodological tools: the social sciences and literature departments.

The social sciences and literary studies share an indelible link by virtue of their twinned emergence as academic disciplines in the early twentieth century. Both disciplines in the broadest sense share a keen interest in understanding and describing human behavior and social relationships. However despite—or perhaps owing to—these similarities, the disciplines have historically identified themselves in terms of opposition. On one side, Émile Durkheim’s Rules of Sociological Method, published in 1895, defined the discipline in terms of positivism and quantitative study. On the other side, foundational literature scholars such as Matthew Arnold and F.R. Leavis understood literary study as a crucial component to the project of invigorating the national culture: to identify among the mass of popular culture the most elite examples of art. Critics in this early school of literary study therefore understood literature less as a mirror of society and more as a way to access what is best about cultural ideals or humanistic achievement (Arnold, 1873 ; Leavis, 2011 ). In this early context, social scientists were more interested in making society itself the object of study. While the features of each respective field have undoubtedly changed dramatically over the past century, this underlying division regarding the “science” in the social science persists. If the social scientist and literature scholar can speak with some degree of shared comprehension, they nonetheless are beset by disciplinary boundaries that make the task of mutual exchange harder than it might otherwise appear.

The decision to better document the uses of literature within the social sciences was born from an overarching drive to understand literature’s impact on researchers that often escape notice. After all, literary scholars are in general familiar with (if not thoroughly informed by) the works of sociologists, economists, and political scientists. Moreover, they are likely to be comfortable both with using the toolset of the social sciences in their own work and, more to the point, citing sociologists such as Émile Durkheim, Erving Goffman, and Bruno Latour. Over the last decade, for instance, several prominent literary scholars have advocated for a descriptive model for analyzing literary texts modeled on the social sciences (e.g., Love 2010 ; Marcus and Love, 2016 ). This relatively recent turn to the social sciences does not begin to consider, of course, the much longer history of literary scholars drawing critical concepts from the Frankfurt School (such as Theodor Adorno or Jürgen Habermas) or, more significantly, the works of Karl Marx. All of which is to say, one can easily expect references to sources broadly associated with the social sciences when reading a literary studies monograph.

However, if it is clear that literary scholars are familiar with prominent works by social scientists, it is much less apparent if the reverse is true. In an essay in World Politics, the political scientist Cathie Jo Martin outlines the profound insight literary sources can offer the field. Novels and other literary fiction provide “a site for imagining policy”, help define shared group interests, and create narratives that legitimize systems of governance (Martin, 2019 , p. 432). Elsewhere, Nobel prize-winning economist Robert J. Shiller calls for greater engagement with literature and fiction in Narrative Economics (2019). However, as we show below, cases of social scientists explicitly acknowledging literary sources are few and far in between. Rather than articulate yet another call for better dialog between the disciplines, we instead seek greater insight into the way social scientists are already referring to, engaging with, or simply using literature in their field as researchers and teachers. As explained in detail below, this task is not as straightforward as it may seem.

Our project proceeded in two steps. The first was a qualitative study of social science articles that included references to literary authors drawn from the collection of social science journals cataloged on the JSTOR digital library. The evaluation of literary references captured in our study (outlined below) made it possible to track the proliferation of literary sources across social science research and to create a loose typology of these uses. For the second step, we developed a survey for social science researchers to elaborate on how, if at all, their work engages with works of literary fiction. Before going into the field, the survey was tested and discussed with a small number of academics to ensure that the items capture the concepts of interest. The survey was then sent electronically to 13,784 researchers at all stages (from PhD students to full professors) from the top 25 social science departments as ranked in 2019 by Times Higher Education (World University Rankings).

If academic departments are guardians of their disciplines, then this sample of prominent departments might reflect the international standard for their respective fields. In other words, researchers attached to these institutions may be more inclined to protect conventions than to go against the grain. In contrast, we can imagine that scholars at smaller schools, colleges, or cross-disciplinary research centers might be more inclined to engage with other disciplines. Focusing on the former institutions rather than the later, our survey finds hard test cases for our questions about the use of literary references in social sciences. Finally, by calling attention to the different forms of influence literature may (or may not) assume, the survey made it possible to dwell in more detail on how social scientists esteem literary fiction as a tool for understanding social concepts.

Before conducting our survey, we first developed a typology of what we term uses of literature within the social sciences. This typology is the result of an ongoing project seeking to understand how literature might already play a role in the social sciences, no matter how small this role might appear at first glance. Our investigations were further motivated by the distinct lack of sources on the subject. While there are a number of prominent cases that call for social scientists to incorporate the insights of literature into their research (e.g., Shiller, 2019 ) and teaching (e.g., Morson and Schapiro, 2017 ), there are hardly any that demonstrate how (and where) they might already be doing so. For those of us who wish to expound on the value of not only literature per se but the study of literature specifically, a thorough account of how experts in an adjacent field like social science might already incorporate literary objects in their scholarship is a critical starting point. The absence of a generalized account of the field therefore required us to generate our own.

To do so, we first devised a plan to comb through the entire catalog of published social science articles on JSTOR, which spans nearly a century’s worth of material. Our goal at this point was to identify and categorize where and how social scientists refer to literary fiction in their published work. As will become clear, this approach’s limitations—namely, its reliance on a pre-determined list of searchable terms—set the groundwork for our survey, which was designed to account for surprising or unexpected responses. Nevertheless, the survey provided valuable insight into the more fleeting references to literary fiction in published social science research.

A brief account of this JSTOR project is useful for contextualizing the results of our social science survey. First, it was necessary to generate a delimited archive of social science articles that use, in some shape or another, literary sources. For the sake of producing an adequate number of sources, we composed a list of search terms that consisted of 30 prominent Anglophone authors, along with two famous literary characters, Robinson Crusoe, and Sherlock Holmes (Fig. 1 ). To determine these search terms, we cross-referenced popular online media articles (including blogs, short essays, and user forums) that offered broad rankings of, for example, the most important authors of all time. To best address the historical breadth of the JSTOR catalog, the names were edited down further to focus on authors who published before the middle of the twentieth century. It goes without saying that this initial list was far from exhaustive. Instead, it was intended to produce a large enough body of results in order for us to further generate a working typology of literary references as they appeared in the articles. Footnote 1 Second, we conducted a qualitative analysis of these articles alongside the rough typology of uses Michael Watts, Professor of Economics at Purdue, outlines in his study of economics and literature—the only workable typology we found.

Chart displays search terms (author name or fictional character name) and their corresponding total number of appearances across all social science articles on JSTOR. Figure shows 19 most popular results from the compiled search term list.

According to Watts, economists who engage with literature to any degree tend to do so according to four different categories: 1. eloquent description of human behavior; 2. historical evidence conveying the context of a particular time or place; 3. Alternative accounts of rational behavior that complement or challenge economic theory; 4. Evidence of an antimarket/antibusiness orientation in esthetic works. ( 2002 , p. 377)

When viewed alongside the JSTOR articles, however, the limitations to Watts’s typology were apparent. Most immediately, the emphasis on what one might call deep or sustained engagements with literature means that his typology will not capture those more fleeting uses of literature that make up the vast majority of literary references in the social science archive. Once one recognizes these limits, it becomes clear that any categorization or typology of literature in social science must be sufficiently flexible enough to capture the many and often surprising ways that the disciplinary fields might intersect. Of course, this latter point is underscored by the fact that Watt’s original typology is concerned with economics only. By expanding our search to include the social sciences in general, we allow for a wider scale for evaluating literature’s usefulness as seen by, for instance, political scientists, social theorists, and behavioral economists. After reviewing the JSTOR set of articles, we expanded on Watt’s initial typology to produce a more encompassing categorization of literary uses that better accommodated the range of literary references as they appeared in the archive. Ultimately, we determined that an expanded typology of uses of literature as they appear in published social science articles must include several more categories, never mind the four in Watts’s initial outline:

Literature as argument

Causal Argument/Historical data: marks studies that see literature as an agent of historical change along the lines of something a historian of the period can recognize.

Alternate Explanation: notes studies that see literary writers as rival social theorists whose arguments warrant proper countering.

Philosophical Position: refers to studies that associate an author with an argument that is developed or sustained across that author’s body of work.

Literature as context

Historical Context: designates studies that use information from literary texts as a way of characterizing a particular historical period, without claiming that the work was an agent of change in the period.

Biography: refers to studies that cite biographical details of an author or literary source as a way of situating concurrent historical events.

Literature as metonym

Cultural Standard: names studies that refer to literary texts as a cultural metonym, for example using Shakespeare as a way of referring to Renaissance England or to Western Culture as a whole.

Parable: designates studies that refer to a literary object that has lost its original literary contextualization and now stands in for something else entirely (e.g., Robinson Crusoe as a parable for homo economicus).

Literature as decoration

Literary effects/style: accounts for those literary texts that are evoked subtly via an author’s style or phrasing.

Decoration: names instances when the references to a literary text appear merely decorative and play no significant role in the argument.

Nonfiction quote: denotes direction quotations attributed to authors outside their published works.

Literature as Inspiration: marks moments in which a literary text plays no direct role in the argument but inspired the scholar’s thinking.

Literature as Teaching Tool: acknowledges instances where scholars use literary texts within the classroom or to help explain a concept.

As this expanded typology suggests, our initial assessment of the JSTOR articles highlights literature’s wide range of applications within the social sciences (Fig. 2 ). Moreover, it jumpstarts a dialog on what, exactly, constitutes a use of literature within this field. After all, it seems significant that a great portion of literary references as captured in the JSTOR survey are essentially non-critical uses—pithy quotations from authors or famous literary epigrams—when viewed from the perspective of literary studies. Nonetheless, to account for these references to literature is to acknowledge something of the role literary fiction per se plays, if not in the entire field of social science research, then in the academic conventions of social science publishing.

Chart shows the proportion of literary typographies across JSTOR’s social science catalog from among our compiled search term list. The presented types originate from our expanded typography based on Watts’s categorisations.

At the same time, our attempts to expand this typology ran into several hurdles of its own. First and foremost, our ability to generate search results from the JSTOR archive was limited by the terms we used: because any search for “literature” or “fiction” produces too many non-applicable and generalized results, one must enter specific search terms (e.g., William Shakespeare; Virginia Woolf) to produce relevant results. Along similar lines, our typology can only take shape in view of these limited sources; it is after all possible that an author or literary text that did not appear on our initial list has been received by social scientists in ways that confound expectations beyond even our expanded typology.

Finally, our reliance on both pre-conceived search terms and archived research articles prevents us from evaluating the newest trends in both literature as well as social science research. As our survey results below demonstrate, there is ample evidence that literature produced within the last twenty years has an outsized impact on those social scientists who acknowledge literary fiction as an influence in their work. The conventions of academic publishing in non-literary fields, however, might prevent researchers from likewise acknowledging these contemporary examples in their published material in favor of more familiar, canonical examples. In view of the affordances and limitations to our initial JSTOR study, we decided to approach the subject of literature and social science from another direction: by going directly to the source.

If publications are the end products of academic work, the product does not always reflect all details of the research process. Nobody leaves the scaffolding standing when the house is completed; likewise, the notes, readings, and other sources of inspiration that lay the foundation for an article or academic monograph often go unacknowledged. To be sure, simply searching for references to literary fiction in the published text of these sources is likely to return some results—for instance, the frequent conflation of the homo economicus model with the protagonist of Robinson Crusoe, albeit in a manner that elides any reference to Daniel Defoe, the author (Watson, 2017 ). As the example of Crusoe suggests, the small pool of literary sources that appear in the text of social science articles cannot adequately account for the wide range of influences literature might have at all stages of research. To better capture these invisible or unacknowledged uses of literature in the social science, we decided to simply ask social scientists themselves. The survey asked a few simple questions on their use (or not) of fictional literature in any stage of their academic work. The survey questions are included in the supplementary material as supplementary note . We received 875 responses at a response rate of 7 percent, a number which we deemed acceptable for allowing us to detect some overall patterns. Given the use of THE rankings, the sample is dominated by North American and European social science departments. The sample includes all career stages: Ph.D students (35 pct.), postdocs and assistant professors (20 pct.), and tenured staff (42 pct.). It includes the four major social science disciplines: economics (20 pct.), sociology (31 pct.), political science (26 pct.), psychology (19 pct.), whereas a small group (4 pct.) identified with other disciplines. A full demographic breakdown (Table S.1) is included in the supplementary material .

Discussion: what do social scientists say?

To be clear, not all social scientists use literature in a manner conforming with our typology above or even consider literature a factor in their work life. In the survey, we focused on the non-explicit uses of literature and the considerations behind their uses. In other words, the survey is meant to supplement our findings from the study of social science journals from the JSTOR digital library. The survey should not be taken as a test of the above-mentioned categories developed from the empirical study of academic publications. Still, it is possible to glean some points of overlap between the two approaches. Several of these categories can be easily applied to responses from the survey, especially the categories relating to literature’s inspirational value or its usefulness as a teaching tool. At the same time, other categories that feature heavily in the published articles—especially “literature as decoration” and “literature as metonym”—were hardly mentioned at all in the survey responses. The gap between what social scientists say about literature and what appears in social science articles reiterates the value of the survey, which captures some of the underlying motivations for using literature (or not) that otherwise would not come across in view of published academic work.

Even considering the general self-selection bias—i.e., respondents who react positively to the idea of using literature are also more likely to participate in the survey—93 percent agreed that “Literature often contains important insights into the nature of society and social life”, while only 2 percent disagreed. However, it is one thing to acknowledge that literature offers general insights into life and quite another to affirm that literature plays a role in individual research biographies. To address this issue, we posed the question if “Reading literature played a role in the formation of your research questions or the development of your research projects.”

We were somewhat surprised to learn that this was the case for almost half of the respondents (46 precent agree or totally agree), and only a third (34 percent) rejected this premise (Table 1 ). Looking at the comments in the open sections shed light on this. For some researchers there was a very clear link. For example, one respondent explained: “Toni Morrison and other women of color (Ana Castillo, for example) greatly enriched my understanding of the role of gender in society (I am a man).”

Raising the bar even higher, we then asked about publications. Publications are arguably the most delicate matter in our survey. After all, publications can make or break careers inasmuch as they factor into promotions and tenure reviews. In response to our publishing question (“How often do you quote or in other ways use a work of fiction in your publications”), 25 percent recorded occasionally using literary fiction in some form and an additional 13 percent affirmed doing so often or very often. In other words, almost 40 percent of the respondents acknowledge using literary sources in their publications (Table 2 ).

However, it must be stressed that these uses vary in form and substance. Based on our qualitative assessment of a subset of social science sources (outlined above), we found that explicit engagements range from the superficial (e.g., brief quotations of famous quips or observations from literary sources), the decontextualized (e.g., Robinson Crusoe functions only as a model of economic behavior), to more sustained engagements with the arguments or ideas presented in literature (e.g., Thomas Piketty’s references to Jane Austen and Balzac in Capital in the Twenty-First Century). In other words, a great many of these applications of literature do not resemble the type of work one finds in literature departments. Moreover, the depth or method for engagement is rather unsystematic.

Of course, publications and research only constitute part of the work academics do at the university. Our survey also asked about teaching in order to capture other literary uses that published papers are unlikely to acknowledge. As noted above, Robinson Crusoe appears in textbooks on microeconomics in the figure of the homo economicus. Elsewhere, there are several examples of sources who call for incorporating literary fiction in the teaching of the social sciences in order to benefit from the imaginative social logics embedded in, for instance, science fiction novels (e.g., Rodgers et al., 2007 ; Hirschman et al., 2018 ). As our survey demonstrates, most of the respondents use or have used literary sources as pedagogical tools: less than a third (30 percent) never do so, most do so at least sometimes, and a few (12 percent) frequently use literature in their teaching (Table 3 ).

If we had expanded the category from literature to art in a wide sense (including, for example, movies, television series, paintings, and music) we suspect the numbers would have been significantly higher.

Finally, our survey provides some insight into what characterizes social scientists who use literature in their work. We generally find only small differences between disciplines within the field of social science, with economists marginally more skeptical of literature’s usefulness in the classroom than researchers in sociology, political science, and psychology (Table 3 ). This confirms earlier findings. A survey from 2006 showed that 57 percent of economist disagreed with the proposition that “In general, interdisciplinary knowledge is better than knowledge obtained by a single discipline.” For psychology, political science, and sociology the numbers were 9, 25 and 28 percent respectively (Fourcade et al., 2015 ).

Larger contrasts appear when considering the career stage of the researchers. We find a very clear general pattern of early-career, non-tenured researchers expressing more skepticism regarding literature’s insights compared to tenured and more senior researchers (Table 4 ). This pattern is most apparent when the respondents consider the use of literature in their own publications. A striking 75 percent of PhD students and 78 percent of postdocs have never quoted literature in their publications, compared to 48 percent in the senior professor group.

Arguably, this gap might simply reflect the much larger publication portfolio expected of senior professors in relation to early-career scholars, but the same pattern holds when we asked more general questions on the importance of literature.

This last point casts into relief some of the internal and generational gaps existing between senior researchers and junior and early-career researchers facing an increasingly precarious academic workplace. For early-career researchers, there is little immediate benefit to working outside established borders when recognition and professional assessment (such as promotions and tenure) still largely derive from work within disciplinary camps (Lyall, 2019 , p. 2). At the same time, stepping into uncharted territory requires one to navigate disciplinary traditions, departmental gatekeeping, and new methodologies. These professional limitations are what observers have in mind when they call interdisciplinary research risky at best (e.g., Callard and Fitzgerald, 2015 ) and “career suicide” at worst (Bothwell, 2016 ).

Rather than ascribing literary interests to some form of academic maturity, then, we suspect this gap between early and later-stage researchers partly reflects how disciplines work. In general terms, it is easy to imagine how the institutional pressures on early-career researchers can translate to a stricter adherence to disciplinary guidelines. Facing an unstable job market and competing for a limited pool of external funding, these scholars are highly dependent on the recognition of their peers and will tend to be more risk-adverse with respect to publications. As noted above, explicit signals of inter- or cross-disciplinary interests may sound appealing in the abstract (and may be promoted by international funding agencies) but they face much more skepticism within academic departments and hiring committees. As a result, using literature in academic publications—and perhaps explicitly cross-disciplinary research in general—is a luxury that only the more professionally-secure researchers can afford.

This explanation might account for the lack of explicit references to literary fiction in social science research, but not the absence of more indirect literature-research relationships. For example, 39 percent of PhD students “totally agree” that one can “learn a lot about what humans are like from literature” as opposed to 60 percent of associate professors and over half of professors. While outside the bounds of our current project, this generational gap may also be evidence of the diminishing presence of literature departments on university campuses after successive years of administrative funding cuts and public pressure against humanities-oriented education in general (Meranze, 2015 ). Fewer literature classes may result in as scenario where even advanced degree holders in an adjacent field like social science may be less studied in literature than their more senior colleagues.

What is the social scientist reading list?

There is no shortage of arguments for those in the social sciences to read literary fiction. As noted in the introduction above, there are a handful of social scientists in fields like sociology and economics who emphasize not only the general value of reading literature but also the profound insights literature can offer their research. However, beyond acknowledging the need to read in general, the question remains: which books to open, and which pages to turn? As is perhaps unsurprising canonical examples of realist fiction, with their aspiration to represent the breadth of the social world, are often the first to come to mind. Critics interested in bridging the gap between literature and economics, for instance, tend to hold up nineteenth-century novels as key examples of the relevant insight fiction might offer (Fessenbecker and Yazell, 2021 ). This preference for major classics was also confirmed by the participants in our survey, who cited such canonical novelists as George Orwell and Leo Tolstoy with high frequency (Table 5 ). The full list of literary recommendations for “understanding society better” includes novels and authors and spans different national literary canons, with authors associated with novels far eclipsing other forms of literature.

The above list of frequently referenced authors comes with few surprises. Anglophone—and especially US—literature and writers dominate, which reflects of the high number of US and UK universities on our list of top departments in the field of social science. All authors except Homer, Shakespeare, Dostoyevsky, Austen, Eliot, and Twain belong to the twentieth century. The most contemporary authors are women—Adichie and Atwood the only living authors within the top twenty—in contrast to the heavily-canonized, uniformly male authors in the top five positions. These more recent authors to different degrees push back against the conventions of the realist novel. Atwood’s speculative fiction and the fantasy and utopian fiction of LeGuin thus demonstrate the range of novelistic genres cited in the survey responses.

The list also suggests something of the formative power of the standardized literature curriculum. Books typically assigned in US high schools are heavily represented on the list of recommended texts below, which includes The Grapes of Wrath and To Kill a Mockingbird (Table 6 ). The uncontested most recommended read for social scientists is the British novelist and essayist George Orwell. The specific recommendations include his most best-selling books, 1984 and Animal Farm, which together form the two most recommended titles according to the survey respondents.

Conclusion: the uses of trivia

To briefly summarize, we set out to study the way social scientists use literature in two broad ways. First, we compiled a dataset comprising a century’s worth of scholarship in the social sciences. Second, we conducted a survey of a large number of contemporary working social scientists. A qualitative review of the dataset revealed a number of different ways social scientists have used literature; these uses were categorizable into six broad categories, several of which contained discernible sub-categories. The survey reinforced parts of this analysis while diverging in intriguing ways. Almost all the surveyed social scientists agreed on the cognitive value of literature, and almost half (46%) reported that literary works had played important roles in their own intellectual biographies. Yet some common uses of literature in the dataset received virtually no mention in the self-reports and the survey revealed suggestive evidence of the impact of institutional structures on whether and how scholars use literature. Ultimately the analysis points towards the value of further research. Both the list of uses compiled from the dataset and the list of works compiled from the survey are necessarily limited in scope and would benefit from a more comprehensive consideration of social scientists and their research.

But by way of conclusion, it is worth responding to the worry that much of the data collected here is somewhat less than consequential—the collection of an offhand reference here, a novel read in grad school there—and to that extent cannot answer our opening question about the nature of interdisciplinarity. Or, perhaps more soberly, it does answer the question, but simply in the negative. There is in fact not much of a meaningful use for literature in the conduct of the social sciences, and one of the pieces of evidence for the argument is the limited use such scholars have made of it thus far. Such an objection is wrong in two ways, one rather boring and one relatively more interesting. The boring objection is simply the observation that the history of a discipline does not predict its future: it would not be at all surprising to see a discipline change as a new archive of material or a new method of analysis became available to it. Indeed, this is often precisely what leads disciplines forward. The more interesting objection is the implicit premise that interdisciplinary scholarship must make its interdisciplinarity overt and extensive, and that a new interdisciplinary connection must be innovative.

We reject both halves of this second premise. The kind of interdisciplinarity we have traced here is light and casual, using a quotation here or there, and there is little that is new about it: it has been with the social sciences for much of their history. However, interdisciplinarity need not be utterly novel to be worth explicating, theorizing, and defending. Against the model of interdisciplinary development that considers the key question to be the difficulty and complexity of bringing two disciplines together, we want to highlight how easy it really is. If it were to become ordinary practice to read a novel and a piece of literary criticism that addressed whatever issue a given social scientist happened to be working on, this would for many social scientists simply normalize and bring to awareness the way they already work. Moreover, rather than shaming social scientists for not using literature more, we submit a better way to evoke greater respect for and greater use of literature and criticism is to highlight the ways in which they already do. Carrots, as they say, rather than sticks.

Data availability

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

The JSTOR search terms did not include John Steinbeck, who is heavily cited by the respondents in our later survey. The omission, while regrettable, underscores the usefulness of the survey’s open-ended questions. Further research might well consider additional authors beyond this improvised list.

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Acknowledgements

The authors wish to thank Rita Felski, Anne-Marie Mai, and Pieter Vanhuysse for their helpful feedback during the design of the survey. Thanks are also due to JSTOR for making available their digital archive and to the nearly 1000 colleagues who responded to the survey and, in some cases, provided additional comments by email. Research in this article received funding by the Danish National Research Foundation (DNRF127) and the Danish Institute for Advanced Study (internal funds).

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Danish Centre for Welfare Studies, University of Southern Denmark, Odense M, Denmark

Klaus Petersen & Paul Marx

Institute for Socio-Economics, Universität Duisburg-Essen, Essen, Germany

Institute of Labor Economics (IZA), Bonn, Germany

Program for Cultures, Civilizations, and Ideas, Bilkent University, Ankara, Turkey

Patrick Fessenbecker

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Yazell, B., Petersen, K., Marx, P. et al. The role of literary fiction in facilitating social science research. Humanit Soc Sci Commun 8 , 261 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-021-00939-y

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Arts-Based Research

• First Online: 29 September 2022

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In its purest form, art may be simultaneously immediate and eternal: immediate in its ability to grasp one’s attention, to provoke or inspire; eternal in its ability to create deep and permanent impressions. Responses to art may be visceral, emotional or psychological by turns or even together. As such, a work of art may possess almost unlimited potential to educate (Leavy, 2017). Although a pursuit of matters artistic may be a worthy pursuit for its own sake, the arts also represent invaluable opportunities across all research disciplines. As such, arts-based research exists at intersections between art and science. According to McNiff ( 2008 ), both arts-based research and science involve the use of systematic experimentation with the goal of gaining knowledge about life.

Aristotle once said or, at least, was said to have said, man by nature seeks to know. Research, in the broadest sense, is an effort to know and I believe that the forms of knowing vary enormously…. – Elliot Eisner, Stanford Graduate School of Education

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Researching Creations: Applying Arts-Based Research to Bedouin Women’s Drawings

Ephrat Huss

Julie Cwikel

Ben Gurion University of the Negev, Beer-Sheva, Israel

Huss, E. & Cwikel, J. (2005). Researching creations: Applying arts-based research to Bedouin women’s drawings. The International Journal of Qualitative Methods 4 (4), 44-62.

All problem solving has to cope with an overcoming of the fossilized shape … the discovery that squares are only one kind of shape among infinitely many. —Rudolf Arnheim, 1996, p. 35

In this article, the author examines the combination of arts-based research and art therapy within Bedouin women ’ s empowerment groups. The art fulfills a double role within the group of both helping to illuminate the women ’ s self-defined concerns and goals, and simultaneously enriching and moving these goals forward. This creates a research tool that adheres to the feminist principles of finding new ways to learn from lower income women from a different culture, together with creating a research context that is of direct potential benefit and enrichment for the women. The author, through examples of the use of art within lower income Bedouin women ’ s groups, examines the theoretical connection between arts-based research and art therapy, two areas that often overlap but whose connection has not been addressed theoretically.

Keywords: art-based research, art therapy, researching women from a nondominant culture

Introduction: Why use the arts in research?

While I am talking with Bedouin women about their drawings, the tin hut in the desert that is the community center in which we work sometimes reverberates with lively stories and emotional closeness, and sometimes I, as a Jewish Israeli art therapist and researcher, and they, as a Bedouin Israeli women’s empowerment group, are lost to each other: When I suggest that we summarize the meaning of the art therapy sessions for the women, they nod their heads politely and thank me, and ignore my questions.

My aim in this article is to see how art-based research literature and art therapy literature can jointly contribute to both working with and understanding women from a different culture.

Art as communication (rather than as therapy) can be defined as the association between words, behavior, and drawing created in a group setting. McNiff (1995), a prominent art therapist and one of the pioneers of art-based research, suggested that art therapy research should move from justification (of art therapy) to creative inquiry into the roles of the art itself.

I will first review arts-based research in an effort to understand the use of art as research. I will then survey art therapy’s practice-based knowledge concerning working with art with women from a different culture, and third, I will apply both of these knowledge bases to Bedouin women’s drawings and words from within my case study.

Art as a form of inquiry

The aim in arts-based research is to use the arts as a method, a form of analysis, a subject, or all of the above, within qualitative research; as such, it falls under the heading of alternative forms of research gathering. It is used in education, social science, the humanities, and art therapy research. Within the qualitative literature, there is an “explosion” in arts-based forms of research (Mullen, 2003).

How does arts-based research help us to understand women from a different culture? It seems that classic verbal methods of interviewing or questionnaire answering are not effective forms of inquiry with these women. Bowler (1997) described the difficulties she found in using questionnaires and interviewing, both of which stress Western-style verbal articulation, as research methods with lower income Asian women. She found that the women try to give the “right” answer or to be polite. In-depth interviewing was also conceived of as a strange and foreign way of constructing and exploring the world for these women (Bowler, 1997; Lawler, 2002; Ried, 1993). The women are often mistakenly conceived of as “mute” because they do not verbalize information along Western lines of inquiry (Goldberger & Veroff, 1995).

The search for a method that “gives voice” to silenced women is a central concern for feminist methodologies. De-Vault (1999) analyzed Western discourse as constructed along male content areas and suggested that we “need to interview in ways that allow the exploration of un-articulated aspects of women’s experiences … and explore new methodologies” (p. 65). Using art as a way of initiating self-expression can be seen as such a methodological innovation.

The arts-based paradigm states that by handing over creativity (the contents of the research) and its interpretation (an explanation of the contents) to the research participant, the participant is empowered, the relationship between researcher and research participant is intensified and made more equal, and the contents are more culturally exact and explicit, using emotional as well as cognitive ways of knowing. Mason (2002) and Sclater (2003) have suggested that drawing or storytelling, or the use of vignettes or pictures as a trigger within an interview, already common in work with children, could also help adults connect ideological abstractions to specific situations, using both personal and collective elements of cultural experience.

Thus, culture and gender unite in making Western research methods insufficient for understanding women from a different culture. Using visual data-gathering methods, then, can be seen as a movement offering alternate avenues of self-expression for women from traditional cultures.

The arts are considered “soft,” female ways of knowing; they tend to be used as a counterpoint to the seriousness of words (Mason, 2002). Alternatively (and mistakenly), as in photography, arts are considered a depiction of absolute reality (Pink, 2001).

Silverman (2000) argued that research must access what people do, and not only what people say.

Art brings “doing” into the research situation. However, the inclusion of arts in research poses many methodological difficulties, described by Eisner (1997) in the title of his article as “The Promises and Perils of Alternative Research Gathering methods.” Denzin and Lincoln (1998) described personal experience methods as going “inwards and outwards, backwards and forwards” (p. 152). The art product by definition creates more “gaps” and entrances than closed statements or conclusions (this is what enables so many different people to connect to one picture!). The art process also includes moves between silences, times of doing, listening, talking, watching, thinking, and different gaps and connections between the above. For example, Mason (2002), a qualitative researcher, described how research participants agonize about where to put whom when drawing a genogram or family diagram. She claimed that this process of “agonizing,” or creating the genogram, is an important component of the finished genogram and should not be left out.

Issues in arts-based research

Sclater (2003) explored the above-described complications of defining the “contours” of art-based research, as difficulties in defining issues related to the quality of art, to the relationship with the research participant, and to the relationship between art and words in arts based research.

Defining issues related to the quality of art

Mullen (2003) concluded that art-based research is focused on process as expressing the context of lived situations rather than the final products disconnected from the context of its creation. Mahon (2000) argued, through the concept of embedded aesthetics, that the aesthetic product is not inherent from within but is always part of broader social contexts, which both transform and are transformed by the art product and around which there is always a power struggle over different cultural meanings (see also Barone, 2003). At the same time, Mahon claimed that art includes elements and aesthetic languages that are specific to itself and that cannot be translated into action research or communication, or understood as direct translations of social interactions. The boundaries of quality are seen as marginalizing whoever does not conform to them, as in folk, vernacular, and outsider forms of art. In art-based research, elitism is replaced by art as communication, whereby reactions to the art work are more important than the quality of the art in terms of external aesthetic criteria. Within this paradigm, the criteria of communication and social responsibility predominate over craftsmanship (Finley, 2003; Mullen, 2003; Sclater, 2003).

Defining issue related to the relationship with the research participant

Another consideration for arts-based research is the setting of standards or limits around the roles of artist, researcher, and facilitator of creative activities. Mullen (2003) suggested,

We need to find ways not just to represent others creatively, but to enable them to represent themselves. The challenge is to go beyond insightful texts, to move ourselves and others into action, with the effect of improving lives. (p. 117)

Therefore, multiple or blurred roles are advantageous, as they reflect the complexity of reality within any research situation. By handing over creativity and its interpretation to the research participant, and including these elements within the research, the relationship between researcher and research participant is intensified, eliciting emotion and facilitating transformation. Thus, the blurring of the contours or roles of the researcher and research participant is seen as advantageous.

For example, cameras were given to lower income rural Chinese women, who, through photography, were able to communicate their concerns to policy makers with whom they would not engage in a direct verbal confrontation (Wang & Burris, 1994).

Defining issues related to the relationship between art and words in arts-based research

Art-based research literature addresses the problematic issue of how to work with the relationship between the verbal and nonverbal elements of the data, the art form, and its interpretation within a research context. Within research, the theoretical framework of understanding a work of art is harnessed to the reason art was used within the research puzzle (Mason, 2002). The use of verbal and nonverbal elements can be seen as a triangulation of data. It is important to understand why we are including art and to think about how the use of visual contents will help solve the “puzzle” of the research (Davis & Srinivasan, 1994; Finley, 2003; Mason, 2002). Save and Nuutinen (2003) defined the relationship between drawing\ and words (after researching a dialogue between the alternate use of pictures and words) as “creating a field of many understandings, creating a ‘third thing’ that is sensory, multi-interpretive, intuitive, and ever-changing, avoiding the final seal of truth” (p. 532).

Connections between art therapy and arts-based research

Art therapy, or any therapy, aims to connect, integrate, and transform experience and behavior. Art-based research also aims to transform, in that it can “use the imagination not only to examine how things are, but also how they could be” (Mullen, 2003, p. 117). It aims to connect and empower by creating something together with the research participants rather than the classic research orientation that takes information away from them (Finley, 2003; Sclater, 2003).

Sarasema (2003), a qualitative researcher, discussed the therapeutic advantages of storytelling for widowed research participants, claiming that art-based research is a way of creating knowledge that “connects head to heart” (p. 603).

Both art therapy and arts-based research involve the use of dialogue, observation, participant observation, and heuristic, hermeneutic, phenomenological, and grounded techniques of interpretation. Both relate to the ethical issues of art and interpretation ownership and a relational definition of art, including the skills of working simultaneously with both visual and verbal components (Burt, 1996; Mason, 2000; B. Moon, 2000; H. Moon, 2002; Talbot Green, 1989).

The difference between the two fields could be defined as art therapy implementing a theoretical psychological metaframework that organizes the therapeutic relationship while using the inherent qualities of different art materials and processes (Kramer, 1997). However, within art therapy, there are researchers who wish to discard these psychological metaframeworks and to focus more on “art-based” art therapy. For instance, in feminist, and studio or community art therapy, art is used both as an expression and a critique of society (Allen, 1995; B. Moon, 2000). Savneet (2000) claimed that art with women from the Developing World, such as the Bedouin women, can serve as a decolonizing tool by giving voice to women holding a polytheistic view of the world, as long as the interpreters of the art are the women and not an external interpreter. The nonverbal image should speak for itself, reducing the possibility of the artist-client’s being spoken over (Hogan, 1997). In addition, the image can be subversive, creating a narrative or counternarrative additional to the dominant one of words. The distancing or intermediating element of art can be helpful in interactions of inequality or of conflict (Dokter, 1998; Liebmann, 1996).

Art-based research, art therapy, and culture

Arts-based research literature focuses on art as a way to connect different people and to express different cultures, giving voice to nondominant narratives.

The culture of the viewer of the art will influence or interact with how the art is understood (Denzin & Lincoln, 1998). Another possibility is to accept that art does not define cultures from the outside but enables multiple and complex views of that culture (Eisner, 1997; Pink, 2001).

Art therapy literature also stresses the ability of art to help make cultural issues manifest within pictures by the fact that each picture shows differing understandings and conceptions of the content drawn, rendering new perspectives (Gerity, 2000). Quiet people can create “loud” art work. Art connects to individual-subjective rather than generalized and stereotyped levels of experience. Thus, we see that factors inherent in the art language help integrate the individual with the culture (Campanelli, 1991; Campbell, 1999; Hiscox & Calisch, 1998).

Art therapy literature also addresses the complexity of art as a culturally embedded vessel in itself. Hocoy (2002) has argued that art as self-expression is a deeply Western construct, not necessarily suited to people from different cultures. Acton (2001) warned against being a “color blind” art therapist, ignoring the cultural differences and approaches to healing of different people and their manifestations within art. Hogan (2003) stressed that art therapists can claim to be culturally sensitive but actually dominate the participants by offering an art process or interpretation that is alien and strange to them (Acton, 2001). Conversely, Hocoy (2002) pointed out that assuming that everything is a cultural difference can also create misunderstandings of pictures. Cultural possibilities for misunderstanding are, on the one hand, bridged by the third object—the artwork—but, on the other, intensified by it. Thus, art is not a “magic” way of overcoming cultural differences but has the potential to enable the multifaceted nature of different cultural identities. The analyses of the art, and the relationship, are harnessed to the therapeutic aims, taking culture into account. In general, art therapy literature supplies much practice-based knowledge of how to take culture into account while focusing on harnessing the artwork and relationship to the therapeutic goals of the interaction.

Having briefly summarized and created a connection between the central issues within arts-based research, and within art therapy with a different culture, I will now apply them to some drawings by the Bedouin women from my research, as a set of relevant data on which to continue examining the above concepts.

The context of the Bedouin women

My aim is to outline briefly the levels of change and stress that some women in this culture are currently experiencing.

Meir (1997) has suggested that under the influence of the dominant Israeli culture (and despite ongoing political friction between the Israeli government and the Bedouins’ claim to the right to continue a traditional nomadic lifestyle), Bedouin society is undergoing change from a collective to an individualistic culture, and from a nomadic lifestyle to fixed settlements. This has resulted in the devaluation of women and children, who no longer work in the fields and tend animals as part of the economic support system, as well as changes in the traditional role of elders. In addition, the loss of the traditional Bedouin tribal supportive roles with an externalization of these responsibilities to state authorities, who invest limited resources and cultural relevance, has resulted in the decline of collective family support and funds. These changes are creating high levels of stress (Abu-Rabia-Abu-Kuider, 1994; Meir, 1997).

The status of Arab women in Israel can thus be defined as doubly oppressed, both by their patriarchal society and by the Israeli political regime. Paradoxically, Bedouin women’s dependence on the males in their family has sometimes increased due to perceptions of women’s exposure to work, education, and individualism as a threat to tradition. Indeed, Bedouin women in the Negev were found to be intensely affected by poverty and the interconnected social and health problems that this entails (Cwikel, 2002; Cwikel, Wiesel, & Al-Krenawi, 2003).

Conversely, Arab feminists Hijab (1988) and Sabbagh (1997) have differentiated between issues of concern for Western women in Western society and those for Arab women. In the West, concerns focus on issues such as reproductive rights, legal equity, expression of self through work and art, and sexual freedom; for Arab women, concerns center on education, health, and employment opportunities as well as legal reform and political participation. Power is measured in relation to other women and not in relation to men (Hijab, 1988; Sabbagh, 1997).

We have found that there are many difficulties for Western female researchers who are not from within the Bedouin communities to understand the diverse concerns of Bedouin women. Bedouin middle- class women will also be from a different “culture” from that of Bedouin working-class women. We see that there is a paramount need to find alternative research methods that can enable outsiders to “hear” the concerns of the Bedouin women and that can enable the Bedouin women to communicate those concerns first to themselves and then to the dominant culture.

Using art as a research method: The Bedouin women’s drawings

The following examples of drawings are from three ongoing groups, in which the art activity was introduced for a few sessions, aiming to enrich, reflect on, or enhance the existing self-defined concerns of the group rather than to present an external study objective or research agenda. The three groups were all of poor Bedouin women living in a township in the Negev, including a group of single mothers meeting as a support group, a group of women undergoing vocational training to open early childhood centers within their homes for extra income, and a group of women without writing skills, wishing to learn arts and crafts as enrichment and eventually to make products to sell.

The art activity in all the groups and meetings divided into set stages, although the contents were in accordance to the group’s wishes. The meetings were undertaken by means of a Bedouin social worker learning art therapy, so as to enhance cultural suitability and to enable the women to talk in Arabic.

As stated, the aim of the art was two pronged.

The first direction is art as empowerment, enrichment, or self-expression. This is in accordance with feminist research that aims to be of direct benefit to the participants (especially as the aims of the group and the contents were defined by them).

The second direction is art as a research method, or a way to understand the concerns of the women (which is a preliminary step to any type of empowering or enriching intervention).

Following is a detailed explanation of the art stages and examples of each of the stages from the different case studies. The intent is not to present a full case study but to examine the interaction between arts-based research and art as empowerment, and lower income Bedouin women.

From a bird’s eye overview, the method of using art described within this article undergoes the following stages, which can be repeated, refining, redefining, deepening, or enriching the contents through doing, observing, and talking.

Participant interacts with art making (within the context of the group leader and group).

Participant interacts with art and group and group leader simultaneously.

Participant observes the pictures as a group exhibition.

Participant re-interacts with the above stages of art making, discussing, and observing, over an issue that arose in the former “wave.”

Step 1: The art-making stage

Each participant draws a picture in oil pastels, or makes a clay statue of a subject agreed on in the initial discussion and connected to the overall aim of the group:

Oil pastels with different sizes of paper, and clay are offered. Oil pastels enable both lines and areas to be created quickly with minimal mess. Clay might be a more familiar medium for Bedouin women.

Drawing can be used in a combination of directive and nondirective forms, similar to different levels of structuring an interview.

The type of art making is process rather than product oriented, termed diagrammic art within art therapy (Liebmann, 1996), which helps access and raise an issue rather than working on a product that exists independent of the creator, as in an art class. This means not that the art does not “lead” the artist but that the products are relational, used to communicate rather than to display talent (Hogan, 2003).

In the sketch shown in Figure 1 , the black circle (left) symbolizes the drawer, the red (vertical) oblong, her picture, and the arrows, the mutual influence of her on the picture and the picture, on her. The brown circle (right) is the context within which this reflective activity takes place, created by and observed by the group leader or researcher, symbolizing the dominant culture.

The question of whether to suggest a topic to draw can be seen as analogous to decisions concerning the level of structure of an interview. I chose to suggest a few topics, so as to make the drawing less threatening for people not used to drawing. Oil pastels include the elements of color and line, encouraging a “story” to be told. On the other hand, clay might be a more familiar medium for some women, and three-dimensionality evokes different types of storytelling. Time is then given to work individually or in pairs (according to what is preferred by the women) on the subject.

The assumption is that the engagement in the art process creates a novel interaction with the subject matter, showing differing perspectives and enhancing a connection between the emotive and the cognitive which in turn promotes a process of reflection and prioritizing elements to be included in the art. This creates a silent prestage of creative organization of personal data from inside onto the empty page, before or together with translating it to the group and to the researcher-observer.

Each type of art assignment embodies a different “culture” within the room in terms of collectivist or individualist interactions. Dosamantes-Beaudry (1999) showed how cultural self construal is depicted by working individually or in pairs in dance therapy. The use of time, space, materials, and so on are all expressions of power and will influence the type of discussion that emerges, enacted both physically and symbolically within the organization of the arts behavior.

An additional question arises if the group leader or researcher, beyond becoming an observer and student of the participant’s pictures, also draws so as to make transparent and clarify her position. According to arts-based research, the aim is to “blur the boundaries” of the (unequal) relationship between researcher and research participant. According to art therapy, this point is much disputed, with some advocating the above and others considering the danger of taking the client-drawer’s space, or intimidating or influencing the client.

All of these considerations become the research context. They need to be examined reflexively as they express the researcher’s cultural bias.

For example, I was certain that oil pastels were the most flexible medium, perhaps being the closest to a writing tool, which is the dominant medium within my culture, but the older Bedouin women responded immediately to clay. One single mother, an abandoned first wife and an older Bedouin woman did not draw but, when I included clay, immediately made a clay ashtray before bursting into tears. She explained that the ashtray was like an older woman, an empty and discarded container. A mundane clay ashtray thus becomes an object of intense meaning and communication illustrating the communicative rather than aesthetic quality of art. As Finley (2003) stated, within this paradigm, the reactions to the poem are more important than the poem itself. The above example also illustrates how the visual stimuli initiated associations that were not decided on in advance, and that were influenced by the material and by the context of the group.

An example of a woman’s interaction with her art was an older woman from the single mothers’ group, who did not speak at Figure 2 all at the beginning but repeated a schema of squares within each meeting. In one meeting, she stated that it was a house. It is not clear if the squares were an illustration of the house, the idea of a house emerged from the graphic shape of the squares, or the idea of a house emerged from within the context of the things other women said, or all of the different elements combined together. Arnheim (1996) stressed the inherent dynamics of an art gestalt that influences the observer (rather than just being a neutral vessel for projection (Figure 2 ).

The example in Figure 3 illustrates how the dialogue between art and the individual can be transforming in itself. One young third wife, whose husband is in jail for violence, said of her picture of a house with flowers, that her father did not allow her to plant flowers by the house and did not allow her to play with other children, and he chose her husband for her. About the picture, she said, “I want a house; I want to build a house of my own. Most important, I want to plant a garden by the house.” The picture contained past and future in a causal narrative, based on a specific instant that gained symbolic meaning. The narrative is poetically organized, with three elements from the past and three from the future, corresponding to the three pictures. The dialogue was transformative, in that it allowed the drawer “to use imagination to examine how things are, but also how they could be otherwise” (Finley, 2003, p. 292). This exemplifies the arts-based paradigm that has as an aim to “go beyond insightful texts, to move ourselves and others into action, with the effect of improving lives” (Mullen, 2003. p. 117).

Another example was when an older woman, who was silent in all the meetings, made a cow, saying that a women is like a cow: When she has no milk left, she is discarded. A younger woman made a horse, saying that a woman is like a horse, strong and able to carry many burdens. Here, the art “answered” the art.

Another woman made an ashtray, and while describing how tired she was of managing as a single mother with no money, she broke the ashtray into many tiny bits in nervous movements creating, a physical embodiment of her emotional state. When the women talked to her and suggested solutions, she started sticking all the pieces together again. She looked at her hands and laughed, noticing this.

One woman ignored the two directives and decided to draw, first in pencil Figure 2 , Figure 3 and then in paint, a stylized sunset picture she had once seen in a magazine. She worked quickly and carefully, begging for a few more minutes at the end. I framed the picture for her. She stated that she wanted to execute a picture like that to decorate her house, as she could not afford to buy one. She had worked hard and was proud of the result (Figure 4 ).

Although for me, as a Western-oriented art therapist, the discussion or individualized creativity of the product is most important (rather than copying a preexisting picture), for this woman, activating the will power and concentration to execute or copy a picture that she could not afford to buy, so as to have the product, was an empowering experience that connected her intensely to the art experience. It seems that the autonomy and intimacy inherent in the exclusive interaction between the drawer and her drawing enabled the woman to pursue her aims rather than to comply with our directives (Hogan, 1997). The woman’s self-directedness is a good example of a negotiation of power as against the dominant culture represented by our suggestions.

Another example of the complex interplay of power between the researcher and women follows. For example, although each of the women in the early childhood training group had 5 to 10 children and were very knowledgeable about early childhood, when I asked them what they would like to focus on in the drawings, they answered with questions conveying helplessness, such as what should be done with a crying child, what games to play, how to connect to the children, and what to feed them. Conversely, they were very clear and confident about the contents of their drawings in relation to early childhood. The art seemed to be express power and knowledge, whereas their words expressed helplessness. Perhaps the drawing enabled a simultaneous double transference: Words were used to express helplessness toward representatives of the dominant culture, but confidence and knowledge were expressed through their drawings. The multifaceted component of the drawing and then talking about it, simultaneously expressed and overcame the disempowerment of learning within the context of the dominant culture.

The discussion stage

After completing the artwork, we laid them out in a circle on the floor at the drawers’ feet, facing toward the group, both clearly connected to their creator, and also creating a group exhibition. The participants ask one another questions about their art work, and the women explain or connect to other’s art work in a free discussion.

The following sketch illustrates the complexity and multiple interactions that occur simultaneously in this situation.

Thus, the art work, group interaction, and so on cannot be analyzed separately, out of context with the other elements.

For example, one young woman was too shy to talk about her drawing of a black circle (Figure 5 ).

“I think you are drawing that you feel closed in a circle you can’t get out of because there are so many people in your small house.” (Friend)

Her friend sitting next to her said that she thought the girl was sad there were so many people in her small house that is like a closed circle that one cannot get out of. The woman nodded in agreement.

The interaction between the two friends is similar to Shvadren’s (1992) analogy of observing an art work as two people, (the creator and the observer) gazing into a lighted window and both seeing new things within the room. Within feminist theory, this emphatic understanding of another person has been termed a relational form of interaction that focuses on empathy and is characteristic of female interactions (Goldberger & Veroff, 1995). Feminist theory suggests that words, as power structures that define reality, are created by men and thus do not describe women’s experiences within this male-dominated world. For example, De-Vault (1999), a feminist theorist, claimed that we “need to interview in ways that allow the exploration of unarticulated aspects of woman’s experiences” (p. 65). The black circle described above and its ensuing dialogue might be such an “interview.” In terms of the art product, we see a simple black circle that is not rich in terms of crafts or in terms of Western art but is an art form used in art therapy, focusing on receptive or connective elements that emphasize thoughts, emotions, and relationships.

An intercultural term for this emotional understanding is Steinberg and Bar-On’s (2002) concept of a dialogic moment. Observing Arab-Jewish conflict resolution groups, they noted that these moments of empathy and understanding between Jewish and Arab students occur when a specific story or personal detail is expressed rather than when generalized ideologies are expressed. Drawing seems to encourage the description of a specific or personal instant and a specific way of “telling” or interpreting that instant, creating, in Abu-Lughod’s (1991) terms, “ethnographies of the particular … [that] capture the cultural and social ‘forces’ that are only embodied in the actions of individuals in time and space” (p. 156).

The visual stimuli themselves can also encourage engagement beyond the areas of conflict. For example, the Bedouin social worker who facilitated art with the group of single mothers stated in her summary of the experience that for the first time (with many years experience working with the women), she felt flooded and disturbed by their suffering. This might be what Finley (2003) defined as the purpose of arts-based inquiry, to contribute to deeper relationships between researcher and research participant.

Within the context of the group discussion, the picture creates a concrete anchor (to use yet another metaphor!) that can be related to on many different levels of language, with everyone seeing or reacting to the same trigger (the picture being discussed). It becomes a transitional space that is a useful mediator for people from different cultures, who formulate their stories along different types of narrative. The meanings of the picture can be negotiated and clarified through both people’s observing the same object. Drawing, and then discussing the drawings, serves as a form of self-interpretation, or validation, of the subject drawn, that is important with intercultural communication. In terms of art therapy, it is congruent with the feminist and phenomenological stands that stress the artist’s understandings of the art work.

For example, one woman drew a cupful of flowers (a traditional subject in Islamic art), then said that her life is empty and boring, not like the flowers, expressing an opposite relationship to the picture. Alternatively, another woman drew a fish in a stormy sea (Figure 6 ) to express her loneliness, far from her maternal family, using a metaphor from the natural world—expressing silence, loneliness, and the turbulence of her circumstances. Another woman used a metaphor of a black cloud, stating that that was the feeling of being a Bedouin woman without a husband.

One woman took this feeling as a confrontation, asking “Why did God give us [women] hands, if hen does not allow us to use them?” She then drew a picture of the modern and the traditional women holding hands and making a connection, stating that the modern women is pulling the traditional women in her direction, as can be seen in her picture (Figure 7 ). Another woman drew a television and said that all day she sits crying in front of the TV, bored and lonely, thus creating a metonym (Figure 8 ).

One woman, whose shack is going to be pulled down because she does not have a building permit, drew a steep slope, with a house at the end. She said that she feels the energy needed to keep her house is too steep a slope for her to climb, juxtaposing a concrete situation and a metaphor.

(top to bottom)

The above words describe different personal and cultural “entrances” to the pictures. Discussing the contents of the pictures thus helps clarify the participant’s stand toward her picture.

The art directive itself can also disclose cultural differences. For example, we asked all the participants to draw a symbol of themselves as an introduction (a common exercise in art therapy). However, they all drew a wish, something that they wanted, or something abstract. At first, it seemed that they had not understood or ignored the request for a symbol of self. However, a wish can also be understood as an abstract symbol of self extended into time and space outside or beyond the self. This might relate to collective identity, which extends beyond the individual, and to the aesthetics of Islamic art, aiming to cheer and express wishes for a better future. We see that basic concepts, such as symbols, constitute different formulations or “shapes” within different cultures. The concrete element of drawing makes the specific characteristics of concepts such as a symbol, wish, or moment less abstract and thus more overt. The dual activity of both concretely drawing or enacting these concepts, and then explaining them as they appear in the picture helps access these subtle differences that are lost in verbal interaction, where we can mistakenly assume that by using the same concept (such as a symbol) we mean the same thing. Bhaba’s (1994) statement that concepts, such as death, mothering, and aging, cannot be translated, having different values and meaning different things in different cultures. Thus, it is not possible to “translate” one culture into another.

Art can contain different elements simultaneously.

One young woman said about the blue-and-white abstract silkscreen made in the arts and crafts group, that the brooch’s colors reminded her of the sea, with a boy standing in the distance. Everyone laughed and she said that she wanted to get married, although marriage is the end of freedom: You stay at home and do not go to the sea anymore. Thus, the picture enabled a dialogue of ambivalence. When people live in more than one culture and are undergoing acculturation, the ability to integrate different cultural or personal understandings, or even opposing feelings as part of a whole, is considered beneficial to the acculturation process. Talking in a linear sequence seems to invite a more unified dialogue, as each point has to come after the last, rather than being shown simultaneously. The art as a trigger for discussion enabled a complex version of reality that is not reduced to one truth.

Examples of the Magen David (A woman’s wishes). “ I wish for a house.” (Below) “ I wish for peace.”

Another example is of a young teenage girl from this group with no head cover wearing jeans and a large Jewish and national symbol that is currently part of the teen fashion in necklaces in Israel, who drew a picture of a Bedouin tent and said that she liked the traditional Bedouin culture best (perhaps also expressing a wish for less complicated times in terms of identity). This is similar to Abu-Lughod’s (1991) suggestion that specific, individual examples negate cultural stereotypes. For instance, she describes a woman swearing and citing from the Koran in the same sentence, thus refusing to be reduced to one truth (Abu-Lughod, 1991).

One woman drew a picture of a bus (driving accidents are a major problem within Israel in general and within the Bedouin villages and townships in particular). She described how, after many failures, she had just completed her driving theory test but must now find the money for driving lessons; otherwise, the theory would be out of date. She stated that, like the traffic light, when there is war, one needs to stop. She continued about how important her driving license was for her, as it would enable her to take the children to different places. She said her brothers were helping her to pay for the lessons, because she had left school at the age of 8 to look after them. She had written the words “ derech shalom-ve lo lemilhama ” above the bus, “a journey of peace and not war.” She explained, “I want there to be peace—inside me, between people, and between countries.” This is an example of the multiple levels of future and present, particularity and generalness, concreteness and abstractness, that can be contained within one picture, making it especially suitable for people undergoing cultural (and physical) transitions within their lives, incorporating different cultures.

To summarize, the reflective dialogue between drawer and drawing, and the interactive elements of the group dynamics combine to create a triangular situation with many different types of interactions, for instance between a drawer and her own drawing, between a drawer and other people’s drawings, and between a drawer and other people. In the following section, I illustrate the complexity and multiple interactions of this situation, showing the different types of interactions between the words and the art, and explaining the art creates a multifaceted level of content that refuses to be reduced to a simple entity.

Group stage, the whole picture

The third stage can be observing the art works as a unified exhibition or group statement. Recurring themes become overt both to the group itself and to an outsider, such as the researcher (Campbell, 1999; Hiscox & Calisch, 1998). Cultural stands or beliefs are often so embedded that we are usually not aware of them ourselves. Observing the meanings within the drawings of other people from the same culture strengthens and defines these messages, creating a type of critical pedagogy.

For example, when observing all the pictures of “what a child needs,” we noticed that the children always played outside and were depicted in rich color. The caretakers inside were depicted without color and in minimal pencil lines. Thus, outside was defined as the focus for exploration—having implications for creating a culturally sensitive early childhood curriculum for Bedouin children (Dosmantes-Beaudry, 1999).

This is also congruent with feminist group therapy, which defines problems as outside the individual, related to context, and experienced by anyone within that context (rather than defined as a personal pathology). In terms of art therapy, art work can become “embodied” with meanings that hold symbolic meaning for the whole group.

For example, houses were a strong theme with the single mothers, and we devoted a session to drawing more houses so as to understand their implications. This led to the following, last stage of this method.

Validating or deepening understandings through additional words or drawings

The fourth stage of the drawing process entails re-viewing pictures and re-drawing issues that it is felt need more clarification.

In terms of arts-based research, this serves as a type of validating mechanism, in that the group exhibition gives a chance for themes to be discussed and verified on the spot through the multiple voices or comments of the group. One of the advantages of drawings is that they are constant and permanent fixtures that can be re-viewed and additional meanings gained with each viewing. At the same time, the meanings can constantly shift, enabling different words or associations at different viewings (just as we enjoy observing a work of art again and again, giving it additional or different meanings).

Within art therapy, the observation of former pictures is used as a way to enhance self-reflection and emotive involvement with (or projection onto) the picture. Schaverien (1992) has discussed how a picture can become temporarily infused with much emotional meaning for the viewer, whereas at a later stage, the picture as a talisman is relinquished.

In this article, I attempted to combine the theories of art therapy and of art-based research concerned with working with a different culture. Canclini (1996) stated that we are used to the fusion of different cultural elements, such as modern art books sitting together with crafts books on our coffee tables, to multimedia reproductions of “high” culture, to foods that combine different cultural traditions, but that we mistakenly shy away from creating “hybrid” mixes of academics and of clinical practice.

This article can be seen as a double meeting between art as therapy or empowerment, and art as research, and between Bedouin women and Jewish Western art therapy. This combination was used to create an art activity that, I hope, is both informative as research and empowering as self-expression and enrichment.

It seems that art as research can enhance understanding between the Bedouin women and the dominant Israeli culture by offering a complex, multifaceted expression of the Bedouin women’s concerns, together with their understanding of these concerns. Feminist researchers have stated, “to hear women’s perspectives accurately, we have to learn to listen in sterio, receiving both the dominant and the muted channels clearly, and understanding the relationship between them” (Anderson & Jack, 1991, p. 11).

Similarly, art as therapy or empowerment can offer the transformative, enriching, and empowering elements of creating art, making it a worthwhile endeavor for the women. Both uses do not exclude the need for constant reflexivity in understanding the cultural meanings implied by different art interventions.

Thus, the research context becomes of direct potential benefit to the women, uniting research and therapy aims—observation and self-observation, action and reaction.

Spivak addresses the difficulty in “admitting non-Western cultural production into the Western academy without side-stepping its challenges to metropolitan canons and thus perpetuating the ‘subalterization’ of third world culture” (p. 254). This difficulty in accepting different forms of art—both Bedouin women’s art, such as crafts, and art within psychology, such as in art therapy (rather than art as diagnostics) and art within research (rather than words only)—challenges Western classic conceptions of art and its roles (and, thus, of Bedouin women, of psychology, and of research). The limitation of this article is that I did not fully explore the meanings of the art experience for the women. Another limitation is the paradox built into the method, and mentioned above, of trying to access non-Western experience, through Western methods.

When working with art materials, the narrative is developed through the interaction of doing and reflecting on one’s actions, in a constantly modifying activity. For example, wet paint makes the paper too wet, and so pencil can be tried, but then the shapes are too defined and have lost their essence and vitality. Oil pastels can be used as a compromise, although this might result in the loss of some of the essence of both vitality and definition, and so on, until a “good enough” solution is created. This constant negotiation and renegotiation of actions and their meanings seems an inherent part of any intercultural communication made concrete and visible through using art.

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Chapter Four: Theory, Methodologies, Methods, and Evidence

Research Methods

You are viewing the first edition of this textbook. a second edition is available – please visit the latest edition for updated information..

This page discusses the following topics:

Research Goals

Research method types.

Before discussing research   methods , we need to distinguish them from  methodologies  and  research skills . Methodologies, linked to literary theories, are tools and lines of investigation: sets of practices and propositions about texts and the world. Researchers using Marxist literary criticism will adopt methodologies that look to material forces like labor, ownership, and technology to understand literature and its relationship to the world. They will also seek to understand authors not as inspired geniuses but as people whose lives and work are shaped by social forces.

Example: Critical Race Theory Methodologies

Critical Race Theory may use a variety of methodologies, including

• Interest convergence: investigating whether marginalized groups only achieve progress when dominant groups benefit as well
• Intersectional theory: investigating how multiple factors of advantage and disadvantage around race, gender, ethnicity, religion, etc. operate together in complex ways
• Radical critique of the law: investigating how the law has historically been used to marginalize particular groups, such as black people, while recognizing that legal efforts are important to achieve emancipation and civil rights
• Social constructivism: investigating how race is socially constructed (rather than biologically grounded)
• Standpoint epistemology: investigating how knowledge relates to social position
• Structural determinism: investigating how structures of thought and of organizations determine social outcomes

To identify appropriate methodologies, you will need to research your chosen theory and gather what methodologies are associated with it. For the most part, we can’t assume that there are “one size fits all” methodologies.

Research skills are about how you handle materials such as library search engines, citation management programs, special collections materials, and so on.

Research methods  are about where and how you get answers to your research questions. Are you conducting interviews? Visiting archives? Doing close readings? Reviewing scholarship? You will need to choose which methods are most appropriate to use in your research and you need to gain some knowledge about how to use these methods. In other words, you need to do some research into research methods!

Your choice of research method depends on the kind of questions you are asking. For example, if you want to understand how an author progressed through several drafts to arrive at a final manuscript, you may need to do archival research. If you want to understand why a particular literary work became a bestseller, you may need to do audience research. If you want to know why a contemporary author wrote a particular work, you may need to do interviews. Usually literary research involves a combination of methods such as  archival research ,  discourse analysis , and  qualitative research  methods.

Literary research methods tend to differ from research methods in the hard sciences (such as physics and chemistry). Science research must present results that are reproducible, while literary research rarely does (though it must still present evidence for its claims). Literary research often deals with questions of meaning, social conventions, representations of lived experience, and aesthetic effects; these are questions that reward dialogue and different perspectives rather than one great experiment that settles the issue. In literary research, we might get many valuable answers even though they are quite different from one another. Also in literary research, we usually have some room to speculate about answers, but our claims have to be plausible (believable) and our argument comprehensive (meaning we don’t overlook evidence that would alter our argument significantly if it were known).

A literary researcher might select the following:

Theory: Critical Race Theory

Methodology: Social Constructivism

Method: Scholarly

Skills: Search engines, citation management

Wendy Belcher, in  Writing Your Journal Article in 12 Weeks , identifies two main approaches to understanding literary works: looking at a text by itself (associated with New Criticism ) and looking at texts as they connect to society (associated with Cultural Studies ). The goal of New Criticism is to bring the reader further into the text. The goal of Cultural Studies is to bring the reader into the network of discourses that surround and pass through the text. Other approaches, such as Ecocriticism, relate literary texts to the Sciences (as well as to the Humanities).

The New Critics, starting in the 1940s,  focused on meaning within the text itself, using a method they called “ close reading .” The text itself becomes e vidence for a particular reading. Using this approach, you should summarize the literary work briefly and q uote particularly meaningful passages, being sure to introduce quotes and then interpret them (never let them stand alone). Make connections within the work; a sk  “why” and “how” the various parts of the text relate to each other.

Cultural Studies critics see all texts  as connected to society; the critic  therefore has to connect a text to at least one political or social issue. How and why does  the text reproduce particular knowledge systems (known as discourses) and how do these knowledge systems relate to issues of power within the society? Who speaks and when? Answering these questions helps your reader understand the text in context. Cultural contexts can include the treatment of gender (Feminist, Queer), class (Marxist), nationality, race, religion, or any other area of human society.

Other approaches, such as psychoanalytic literary criticism , look at literary texts to better understand human psychology. A psychoanalytic reading can focus on a character, the author, the reader, or on society in general. Ecocriticism  look at human understandings of nature in literary texts.

We select our research methods based on the kinds of things we want to know. For example, we may be studying the relationship between literature and society, between author and text, or the status of a work in the literary canon. We may want to know about a work’s form, genre, or thematics. We may want to know about the audience’s reading and reception, or about methods for teaching literature in schools.

Below are a few research methods and their descriptions. You may need to consult with your instructor about which ones are most appropriate for your project. The first list covers methods most students use in their work. The second list covers methods more commonly used by advanced researchers. Even if you will not be using methods from this second list in your research project, you may read about these research methods in the scholarship you find.

Most commonly used undergraduate research methods:

• Scholarship Methods:  Studies the body of scholarship written about a particular author, literary work, historical period, literary movement, genre, theme, theory, or method.
• Textual Analysis Methods:  Used for close readings of literary texts, these methods also rely on literary theory and background information to support the reading.
• Biographical Methods:  Used to study the life of the author to better understand their work and times, these methods involve reading biographies and autobiographies about the author, and may also include research into private papers, correspondence, and interviews.
• Discourse Analysis Methods:  Studies language patterns to reveal ideology and social relations of power. This research involves the study of institutions, social groups, and social movements to understand how people in various settings use language to represent the world to themselves and others. Literary works may present complex mixtures of discourses which the characters (and readers) have to navigate.
• Creative Writing Methods:  A literary re-working of another literary text, creative writing research is used to better understand a literary work by investigating its language, formal structures, composition methods, themes, and so on. For instance, a creative research project may retell a story from a minor character’s perspective to reveal an alternative reading of events. To qualify as research, a creative research project is usually combined with a piece of theoretical writing that explains and justifies the work.

Methods used more often by advanced researchers:

• Archival Methods: Usually involves trips to special collections where original papers are kept. In these archives are many unpublished materials such as diaries, letters, photographs, ledgers, and so on. These materials can offer us invaluable insight into the life of an author, the development of a literary work, or the society in which the author lived. There are at least three major archives of James Baldwin’s papers: The Smithsonian , Yale , and The New York Public Library . Descriptions of such materials are often available online, but the materials themselves are typically stored in boxes at the archive.
• Computational Methods:  Used for statistical analysis of texts such as studies of the popularity and meaning of particular words in literature over time.
• Ethnographic Methods:  Studies groups of people and their interactions with literary works, for instance in educational institutions, in reading groups (such as book clubs), and in fan networks. This approach may involve interviews and visits to places (including online communities) where people interact with literary works. Note: before you begin such work, you must have  Institutional Review Board (IRB)  approval “to protect the rights and welfare of human participants involved in research.”
• Visual Methods:  Studies the visual qualities of literary works. Some literary works, such as illuminated manuscripts, children’s literature, and graphic novels, present a complex interplay of text and image. Even works without illustrations can be studied for their use of typography, layout, and other visual features.

Regardless of the method(s) you choose, you will need to learn how to apply them to your work and how to carry them out successfully. For example, you should know that many archives do not allow you to bring pens (you can use pencils) and you may not be allowed to bring bags into the archives. You will need to keep a record of which documents you consult and their location (box number, etc.) in the archives. If you are unsure how to use a particular method, please consult a book about it. [1] Also, ask for the advice of trained researchers such as your instructor or a research librarian.

• What research method(s) will you be using for your paper? Why did you make this method selection over other methods? If you haven’t made a selection yet, which methods are you considering?
• What specific methodological approaches are you most interested in exploring in relation to the chosen literary work?
• What is your plan for researching your method(s) and its major approaches?
• What was the most important lesson you learned from this page? What point was confusing or difficult to understand?

Write your answers in a webcourse discussion page.

• Introduction to Research Methods: A Practical Guide for Anyone Undertaking a Research Project  by Catherine, Dr. Dawson
• Practical Research Methods: A User-Friendly Guide to Mastering Research Techniques and Projects  by Catherine Dawson
• Qualitative Inquiry and Research Design: Choosing Among Five Approaches  by John W. Creswell  Cheryl N. Poth
• Qualitative Research Evaluation Methods: Integrating Theory and Practice  by Michael Quinn Patton
• Research Design: Qualitative, Quantitative, and Mixed Methods Approaches  by John W. Creswell  J. David Creswell
• Research Methodology: A Step-by-Step Guide for Beginners  by Ranjit Kumar
• Research Methodology: Methods and Techniques  by C.R. Kothari

Strategies for Conducting Literary Research Copyright © 2021 by Barry Mauer & John Venecek is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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Research on the Innovative Development of Network Literature and Art under the Background of Mobile Digitalization

Bingyan tang.

School of Literature and Media, Xinyu College, Xinyu 338004, Jiangxi, China

Associated Data

The dataset can be obtained from the author upon request.

The development of the times, the advancement of technology, and the innovation of the Internet have formed the soil for the growth of network literature and art. At present, there are still problems in the network literature and art, such as mixed fish and dragons, low quality, emphasis on entertainment, and weak responsibility, but its development is expected. Network literature and art is the product of the combination of literature and art and the development of science and technology. Meanwhile, network literature and art are an important part of social and economic development. It needs to seize the new opportunities of mobile digital technology to empower the creation, production, and dissemination of online literary and artistic works. Control the quality of online literature and art, guide its positive dissemination, and make it contribute to the prosperity of the entire Chinese literature and art.

1. Introduction

The development and prosperity of network literature and art is one of the most eye-catching cultural scenes in the new century. Especially in recent years, with the development of new media technology and the popularization of mobile digitalization, network literature and art have ushered in a broader space for development [ 1 ]. Not only has the number exploded, but it has also achieved fission-type communication through multichannel communication, multiplatform display, and multiterminal push. It not only enriches the spiritual and cultural life of the people but also faces severe challenges to its quality.

In 2014, General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out at the Symposium on Literature and Art Work that Internet technology and new media have changed the form of literature and art. It gave birth to a large number of new types of literature and art and also brought profound changes in the concept of literature and art and the practice of literature and art [ 2 , 3 ]. Due to the development of digitization of characters, imageization of books, and online reading, literature, art and even social culture are facing major changes. It is necessary to adapt to the development of the situation, do a good job in the production of online literature and art creation, and strengthen the positive guidance.

In order to do a good job in the construction of online literature and art, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China issued the Opinions on the Prosperity and Development of Socialist Literature and Art in October 2015, which for the first time clearly proposed to vigorously develop online literature and art. General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out that “Cyberspace is the common spiritual home of hundreds of millions of people. Cyberspace is in line with the people's interests with clear sky and good ecology. Cyberspace is smoky and ecologically deteriorating, which is not in line with the interests of the people.” In order to give full play to the leading role of socialist ideology, it is necessary to strengthen the active and correct guidance of network literature and art. Not only is it of great significance to purify cyberspace and make online literature and art better benefit the people, but it is also a new topic for building a socialist ideological discourse system in the new era [ 4 – 6 ].

In 2018, at the National Propaganda and Ideological Work Conference, General Secretary Xi Jinping further emphasized that “the improvement of quality should be the lifeline of literary and artistic works, and more healthy and high-quality online literary and artistic works should be launched.” As a new thing, online literature and art has been highly valued by the party and the state in recent years and has increasingly become the research focus of the academic circles [ 7 ].

Therefore, actively research and judge the new changes, new characteristics and new trends of online literature and art in the new media field, accurately control the communication characteristics and laws of online literature and art, and actively and effectively regulate and guide it. It is of great significance for expanding and deepening the theoretical research of network literature and art, cultivating a good network literature and art ecology, and promoting the healthy development of network literature and art.

2. Overview and Development Trend of Network Literature and Art

2.1. overview of network literature and art.

At present, there are still big differences in theoretical understanding and evaluation of network literature and art. There is still no clear consensus on its conceptual analysis. Therefore, it is necessary to cut into the two categories of “network” and “literature and art,” respectively, and carry out an ontological interpretation of network literature and art from the aspects of connotation, extension, and characteristics.

“Network” refers to the use of modern computer technology and physical electronic pulse technology. Through the mutual conversion between digital signals and electronic pulses, a virtual platform for information transmission, reception, and sharing is achieved. Using the network can connect any information terminal equipment that is openly associated with it to realize the sharing of information and resources among points, lines, surfaces, and bodies. With the introduction of electronic products such as computers, smartphones, and tablet computers into thousands of households, people can easily read words with the help of the Internet, and it is becoming more and more difficult to separate them.

The concept of “literature and art” is still controversial in the academic circles. One view holds that literature and art are collectively referred to as literature and art. Another point of view is that literature and art refer to literature, which is a parallel relationship with art [ 8 ]. In 2011, in the reform of the division of my country's discipline system, art, which originally belonged to the category of literature, was listed separately and became the thirteenth discipline category. This ended the history of subordination of art to literature in the division of disciplines for more than one hundred years. Combined with the current public context, it is clear that the former view is more reasonable and practical. That is, literature and art include various art forms such as literature and drama, music, dance, art, calligraphy, photography, folk art, acrobatics, film, and television.

As a new style of literature and art, “Internet literature and art” refers to the collective name of various literature and art forms that are published and disseminated through network platforms after informatization processing. In terms of its extension, it not only covers new art forms created by netizens such as online animation, online performances, online dramas, micromovies, online music, talk shows, and jokes. It also includes networked works of traditional literature and art such as literature and drama, music, dance, art, calligraphy, photography, folk art, acrobatics, and film and television. Compared with traditional literature and art, network literature and art mainly have the following four characteristics:

• The main body of creation is based on the mass netizens. Although there are some traditional literary and artistic workers in the main body of online literature and art, the main source is still ordinary netizens with “grassroots.” They come from different social classes, with different occupational backgrounds, and the number of groups is huge.
• The content of the works is expressed as “more than good.” Compared with the orthodoxy of traditional literature and art, online literature and art tend to be more entertaining. Although there are many excellent works, under the influence of consumerism and market economy, the production of online literature and art is inevitably mixed with some vulgar and vulgar content, resulting in uneven quality of their works.
• The means of communication is digital media. Only when complex information such as words, pictures, images, and data in online literary and artistic works are transformed into digital models, and then into computer binary codes, can the dissemination process of works on the Internet be completed. This is the most essential difference between network literature and traditional literature and art.
• The audience is mainly the younger generation. Compared with traditional literature and art, which is “suitable for all ages,” the audience of online literature and art is mainly concentrated in the young generation of “post-80s” and “post-90s.” Among them, the number of readers of online literature alone is as high as more than 200 million, and most of them are young people. This makes online literature and art closely related to the daily life of young people, has a wide impact on their thoughts and behaviors, and is manifested as a “fan” culture.

2.2. The Development Trend of Network Literature and Art

Network literature and art is a new type of art form that is generated and developed relying on network technology. As far as its “connotation” is concerned, “Internet literature and art is endowed with Internet artistic thinking under the influence and influence of Internet technology, new media, and social changes. It represents the life of the times and expresses modern experience and thoughts and feelings with new artistic production methods. In essence, it is mainly reflected in three aspects: Internet artistic thinking, new art production methods, and aesthetic art.

From the perspective of the development of online literature and art, it mainly includes text-based online novels, online poems, video-based online dramas, online variety shows, online movies, online animations, online games, online performances, audio-based online music, and mobile phone value-added. In terms of development trend, it is mainly characterized by scale and industrialization, technologicalization and mobilization, and the integration and innovation of network literature and art and traditional literature and art.

2.2.1. The Scale and Industrialization of the Development of Network Literature and Art

Data show that as of March 2020, the number of netizens in my country has reached 904 million, and the Internet penetration rate has reached 64.5%. Among them, the number of mobile Internet users reached 897 million, and the proportion of Internet users using mobile phones to access the Internet reached 99.3%. The proportion of using TV to surf the Internet was 32.0%. The proportions of using desktop computers, laptop computers and tablet computers to access the Internet were 42.7%, 35.1% and 29.0%, respectively [ 9 ].

In terms of user scale and utilization rate, online literature and art have shown a dual trend of huge numbers and further growth. As of March 2020, the scale of online music users was nearly 635 million, accounting for 70.3% of the total netizens, and the scale of mobile phone users was nearly 633 million, accounting for 70.5% of mobile netizens. The scale of online literature users reached 455 million, accounting for 50.4% of the total netizens, and the scale of mobile phone users reached 453 million, accounting for 50.5% of the mobile netizens. The scale of online game users is nearly 532 million, accounting for 58.9% of the total netizens, and the scale of mobile phone users is nearly 529 million, accounting for 59.0%. The number of online video users reached 850 million, accounting for 94.1% of the total netizens, of which the number of short video users was 773 million, accounting for 85.6% of the total netizens. These data show that the huge number of users, diverse forms of expression, continuous growth scale, and positive development trends have created the basic style of online literature and art.

From the perspective of industrial development, network literature and art not only enrich the social and cultural life of the public but also become an important part of the cultural industry and network economy in the new era.

At present, the network literature and art industry has many subdivisions, forming the basic pattern of “one superpower, many strong.” Data in 2019 show that online games have occupied “half of the country” in the online literature and art industry in terms of total volume, and its total output value of 133.96 billion yuan accounts for half of the entire industry scale. Online live streaming ranked second, reaching a scale of 64.92 billion yuan, which has surpassed the market size of Chinese cinema movies (60.98 billion yuan, 2018). The industries that have reached a scale of 10 billion yuan include online literature (15.73 billion yuan), online dramas (12 billion yuan), online animation (15 billion yuan), and short videos (14.01 billion yuan). The industrial scale of other online literature and art segments, including online variety shows (6.7 billion yuan), online movies (3 billion yuan), online music (6.26 billion yuan), and online audio (4 billion yuan), has also reached dozens billion scale.

It can be said that many subfields have achieved large-scale and industrialized development. It should be noted that due to the “savage growth” of Internet literature and art [ 10 ]. As a result, its industrial development is not mature enough, and its industrial attributes are not clear enough. Investment and financing, industrial chain, and profit models all need to be explored urgently.

2.2.2. Technicalization and Mobility of the Development of Network Literature and Art

The overall promotion of digitization and networking is complementary to the personalized diversification of the emerging online literature and art market. This is of great significance for improving the supply capacity of network cultural products and services and improving the quality of cultural services. At the same time, it also promotes the healthy development of network literature and art.

Benjamin believes that “every form of art has gone through a critical stage in its development history, and it can only be effective under the change of new technologies. In other words, it needs to rely on new forms of art to require breakthroughs.” The advancement of technology promotes with the evolution of network art form and the development and change of art style. In the development of Internet literature and art, the trend of integration of Internet technology and art has become increasingly prominent. It promotes the continuous dissolution of the boundary between art and technology and affects people's artistic aesthetics and technology through the media and wider means and channels of the Internet.

Online literature, online games, online movies, online short videos, and online animation are all based on new network technologies. Combined with the integration of artificial intelligence and other aspects across technical levels, rich works of art have been created. And in the blending of modern media and multiculturalism, a new artistic concept is constructed. For example, the use of special effects in online movies can bring the ultimate visual pleasure to the audience, and virtual reality (VR) technology has broken through the traditional art aesthetic method of “contemplation.” By creating an immersive multidimensional dynamic sensory world, it extends the audience's senses and brings an “immersive” aesthetic experience to the audience.

With the popularization and wide application of smart large-screen mobile phones, the user scale and penetration rate of mobile network video, online music, online games, and online literature continue to grow [ 11 ]. The mobile characteristics of network literature and art dissemination-acceptance are gradually obvious. The mobilization of dissemination-acceptance not only profoundly affects the creation and production of online literature and art but also the habits and stereotypes of people's aesthetic acceptance. It also inspired and spawned new forms of artistic expression, such as the rise of vertical screen dramas. Based on the portability of mobile devices, it is also compatible with the fast-paced lifestyle of users and the characteristics of receiving high-density and fragmented information anytime, anywhere. Mobility makes many online literary and artistic works present the characteristics of single content and short episodes.

2.2.3. Fusion and Innovation of Internet and Traditional Literature and Art

In recent years, the development forms of online literature and art have become increasingly rich, and at the same time, the integration and innovation with traditional forms of literature and art has also been deepened. Its remarkable performance is that with the improvement of quality, the distinction and boundary between online literary and artistic works and traditional literary and artistic works are increasingly blurred. Especially in the field of online audio-visual, excellent online variety shows, online dramas, and online movies are difficult to completely distinguish from TV variety shows, TV series, and cinema movies. Not only that the play mode of “from network to station” program interpenetration and location transfer further makes up for the differences and boundaries between the two.

Looking at the production of online literature and art in recent years, on the one hand, mobile Internet communication with mobile phones as the main carrier occupies a dominant position. New forms of communication such as WeChat, Weibo, Weibo, Weibo, Internet TV, and digital newspapers and periodicals have become the main channels for the public to obtain information and relax and entertain.

Network literature and art have different characteristics and laws from traditional literature and art because of the evolution of language and thinking. With its distinctive personality and innovative power, it has changed the pattern and trend of traditional literary and artistic creation and production and has increasingly radiated, driven, and even led in enriching practice. On the other hand, the advantages of historical resources and development experience of traditional literature and art cannot be ignored. The interaction, mutual influence, and mutual cooperation between online literature and art and traditional literature and art have become an important trend of media integration and have also profoundly changed the pattern of media and literature and art.

Therefore, in the in-depth transformation of “Internet + literature and art,” on the one hand, the characteristics and advantages of traditional literature and art are further exerted, and at the same time, it is also reversed to learn from and absorb the new experience of network literature and art. On the other hand, in terms of development trends, if we say that the “transformation” of online literature and art has already begun, the “change” of traditional literature and art has been latently growing. Then, the fusion and innovation of the two is essentially the transition of aesthetic discourse from transition to transfer in the intersection of “tradition and modernity.” And make the new laws of literature and art precipitate and condense in the field of literature and art, and then move towards the process of “new normal” and “new common name.”

3. Communication Characteristics of Network Literature and Art

Under the background of the Internet, the network literature and art communication show remarkable characteristics such as the entertainment of the communication target, the diversification of the communication subject, the younger of the communication audience, the flattening of the communication content, and the digitization of the communication form.

3.1. Entertainment of Communication Target

As we all know, the practice and exploration of online literature and art are carried out in the context of the prevalence of consumerism culture. From the perspective of the dissemination goal of online literature and art, the creators of online literature and art initially created with an entertainment attitude to meet the public's pleasure needs.

In the context of the consumer society, the theme of art in online literature and art has become relaxed and casual. Art no longer undertakes serious missions of enlightenment, encouragement, and criticism, but like a string of beautiful and ugly bubbles appearing rapidly, but broken again in an instant. This is an era of loud noises. Although the spirit of enlightenment, encouragement and criticism is no longer serious, the expression of ideas through works of art is still popular. It is just that this expression often takes on a strong, uncondensed emotional tone.

Therefore, to satisfy people's leisure and relaxation spirit as the main purpose, to entertain themselves and share entertainment as the goal, and to promote and realize the flow of capital logic for the purpose of consumerism is wrapped in it. Behind this consumerist approach is the advent of the era of national entertainment, and the cultural concepts of “entertainment until death” and “happy is good” are rampant. People's pursuit of daily spiritual life and the improvement of spiritual quality make online literature and art meet people's inner needs. As a result, it becomes people's way of life, way of life and communication, and shapes the world in which people live. Changes and even subverts the experience history, thinking logic and aesthetic concepts handed down in people's daily life and traditional society.

With the prosperity of consumerism and entertainmentism, the development of online literature and art gradually tends to be “fashionable, commercialized, and profitable.” The phenomenon of “demoralization, dehistoricalization, and devaluation” in the process of online literature and art dissemination has attracted people's attention.

3.2. Diversification of Communication Subjects

At present, the main body of online literature and art communication consists of four types: UGC (User Generated Content), PGC (Professionally Generated Content), PUGC (Professional User Generated Content), and OGC (Occupationally-generated Content). UGC is the most common dissemination subject. Weibo, live broadcast, Douban, and forums can all be regarded as UGC.

With the opening of various network platforms to users, users upload and share content, which further promotes the development of UGC. PGC is a communication subject that is developing rapidly at present. For example, Youku, Tencent, iQiyi, and Himalaya all focus on professional content production. Through a professional content production team, a unified standard and normative form can be established, so as to ensure the quality of the content and satisfy the user's good experience. PUGC is a new model which is a fusion of UGC and PGC. Generally, it is a platform organization such as a studio or company that produces professional content. Well-known celebrities in the industry generally adopt this model, such as Gao Xiaosong's Xiao Shuo and Wu Xiaobo's Wu Xiaobo Channel .

OGC is based on some specific content such as news hotspots, financial comments, artistic aesthetics, and works appreciation. This is a form of content production created by a group of experts to meet the needs of a specific group. From the development history of major video websites, we can see that their communication subjects are increasingly diversified.

Taking Bilibili as an example, the early Bilibili was mainly based on user-uploaded videos, which contained a lot of UGC content. For example, secondary creations such as mixed cutting of original works, and with the transformation of the website ecology, a large number of professional institutions have settled in Bilibili, and PGC content is increasing day by day. In recent years, Bilibili has grown into a website with a high viscosity community culture and user increment with the help of PUGC content. In addition, NetEase Cloud Music integrates UGC, PGC, and PUGC modes. On its APP, there are not only the works of independent singer-songwriters but also the singings of singers from major music companies, as well as songs by fans and other music enthusiasts.

These all indicate that the main body of communication of network literature and art presents the characteristics of diversification. Inject new vitality into the production and development of online literature and art. It also brings many problems such as plagiarism of works, the proliferation of piracy and the protection of literary and artistic copyrights and rights protection, which need attention and effective management.

3.3. Youth of Communication Audience

Data show that as of March 2020, my country's netizens are still dominated by young people. The 20- to 39-year-old group accounted for 52.3% of the total netizens, and the 20 to 29-year-old group accounted for the highest proportion, reaching 21.5%. Young people are the main audience of online literature and art. Therefore, the content, subject matter, form of expression, language structure, ideological concept, and spiritual expression of online literary and artistic works all need to grasp the psychology of young audiences and are more in line with the tastes and needs of young people and online generations [ 12 ]. At the same time, young audiences have long been immersed in Internet culture. It is well versed in various Internet hotspots and emerging vocabulary and is familiar with “stalks” with unique meanings on the Internet. Therefore, online literature and art has become a unique field for them to communicate and identify.

Different online literature and art communication platforms have different audience groups. The core users of Bilibili are two-dimensional animation enthusiasts and radiate the majority of young people. Douban's audience is mainly literary youth. Kuaishou and Douyin also have fixed audiences. These users show the characteristics of “net generation,” the virtual cyberspace is their common memory of growth, and the social attributes between users also show a certain virtuality.

Bilili's partitions show differences in their communities, and each individual user may have attributes of different communities at the same time. Fan opera area, game area, entertainment area, and film and television area have gathered a large number of fans. They communicate and communicate through various methods such as “barrage” and text comments, showing a certain degree of sociality. The fans of each community have a certain amount of expertise in the community's field, as well as a deep understanding of the subcultural terminology and social principles of their group.

From this perspective, the audience of online literature and art is increasingly showing the characteristics of community and circle. These characteristics, in turn, guide the main body of online literature and art to fully consider the desires, interests, and preferences of the audience, especially young people, when carrying out literature and art production and dissemination [ 13 ]. It may make the production and dissemination of online literature and art focus on “market orientation” and “consumption orientation,” while ignoring “cultural orientation” and “education orientation.” It has a negative impact on the healthy development of young people's world outlook, outlook on life and values.

3.4. Planarization of Communication Content

Online literature and art in the form of online music, online TV, online movies, online games, and online short videos enable interpersonal “communication” to easily transcend the walls of time, space, and even power and class and achieve “everyone to everyone.” In terms of dissemination content, it basically shows the characteristics of flat, perceptual, and daily life. In recent years, “short videos” such as Douyin, Kuaishou, and Volcano have sprung up as short video programs or “miniaturized” light variety shows. The short video is 15 seconds to 3 minutes in length, short and concise, fast-paced, strong in social networking, and highly topical. Coupled with the vertical subdivision of themes, it is deeply welcomed by young users and respected by major platforms.

This “simple and fast” communication method also meets the needs of people's daily entertainment. The dissemination content presents the characteristics of flat and intuitive, classified presentation, massive time-sharing, personalized customization, precise orientation, and unlimited links to similar works. In essence, it reflects the characteristics of daily life narrative, realistic narrative, individualized narrative, and liberalized narrative. This dissemination of content that focuses on flat, perceptual, real-time, and life-like content makes people gradually adapt and get used to replacing text reading by electronic reading pictures. Sound, color, light, and shadow replace understanding and imagination, and visual pleasure melts rational thinking, resulting in the phenomenon of subject dissolution or sinking [ 3 , 14 ].

3.5. Digitalization of Communication Form

Since the new era, online literature and art have paid more attention to the three-dimensional effect, emphasizing emotional rendering and atmosphere creation, striving to achieve a whole-hearted immersive experience, and do their best to provide audio-visual entertainment. Especially driven by digital imaging technology, network hypertext technology, and multimedia technology, the production of network literature and art increasingly relies on digital “simulacrum.” Digitization, audio-visualization, simulacra, and intellectualization have become the dominant trends in contemporary online literature and art dissemination. Digital new technologies such as virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), and cloud gaming platforms are gradually entering the homes of ordinary people. Their large-scale popularization has played a role in promoting the dissemination of literary and artistic works.

The application of new technologies such as artificial intelligence, big data, cloud computing, and blockchain has greatly freed the communication of literature and art from the constraints of time and space. To further enrich personal aesthetic experience, the forms of online literature and art communication are also more diverse. The popularization of 5G networks in the future will bring the speed of information dissemination to a new level. Its application will expand the breadth and depth of network communication channels and make online communication of high quality, high-quality audiovisual works a reality. It also enables the realization of a cross-time, cross-regional art appreciation mode, and you can use 5G networks and VR equipment to visit art galleries and museums at home [ 15 ].

The large-scale application of new technologies, new equipment and new media will diversify the forms of online literature and art dissemination. The rich communication channels will also continuously improve the viewing experience of users and meet the needs of different types of cultural consumption.

It should be noted that the digital production and dissemination of online literature and art has also made contemporary spiritual culture sharply inclined to focus on feelings, desires, and bodies. Replacing humanistic connotation and aesthetic inner discipline with technicalism is likely to lead to the disappearance of literary and artistic nature. The proliferation of virtual images and the origin of information worship will lead to the degradation of aesthetic experience and the passivation of aesthetic rationality. As a result, the liberating power of technology has been alienated into the shackles of the development of network literature and art.

4. Guiding Strategies of Network Literature and Art

Through the current creation and dissemination of new experiences, new features, and new trends, we can see the rapid development of network literature and art. On the one hand, the rapid development of online literature and art shows the great power and vitality of “Internet +.” At the same time, it also has a profound impact on people's daily life, aesthetic taste, cultural psychology, values, as well as the fashion of the times, ideology, and social development [ 7 , 16 ]. On the other hand, there are also various problems behind the development of online literature and art such as entertainment, vulgarity, and vulgarity in the production of online literature and art emerge in an endless stream.

The problem of copyright protection of online literature and art is prominent, and the fast-food, flat, and superficialization of online literature and art consumption has gradually become a trend. The economic and social benefits of Internet literature and art dissemination are separated from each other, the technologicalization of Internet literature and art development has eliminated the human nature of literature and art, and so on. All these require us to face up to the cultural guidance and management norms of network literature and art, improve the network literature and art governance system, purify the network literature and art ecology, and promote the healthy development of network literature and art.

4.1. Promoting Integrity and Innovation

“Keeping the righteousness” is the basis for the creation and production of online literature and art. This includes two main aspects: adhering to the development direction of socialist literature and art with Chinese characteristics and following the laws of network literature and art development. From the perspective of the former, socialism with Chinese characteristics is the institutional soil for the survival of the majority of the people. The socialist core values are closely related to the people's living conditions and spiritual aspirations. It reflects the basic moral ideals and value orientations that people should uphold when integrating into social life.

Adhering to the development direction of socialist literature and art with Chinese characteristics requires that online literature and art must strictly distinguish the boundaries between popular and vulgar, vulgar, and vulgar, and online literature and art should not become synonymous with “three vulgar” cultures [ 17 ]. It cannot become a gathering place for distorted mentality, extreme emotions, and abnormal psychology. Socialist core values are still the basic background of online literature and art. As far as the latter is concerned, as a new type of literature and art format, online literature and art has its own vitality, uniqueness of media and communication. Only by earnestly following the particularity and dissemination law of network literature and art's own development. In order to make the best use of the situation, promote the innovation of online literature and art.

“Innovation” is based on a firm and correct political orientation and value orientation. Actively promote the innovation of the concept, content, and form of online literature and art, so that the production of online literature and art can closely follow the pulse of the times, be close to real life, and reflect the spirit of the times. Face up to the entertainment, flat, diversified, youthful, digital, and other characteristics of online literature and art communication. Give full play to the features and advantages of new media in terms of interactivity, mobility, and immediacy. Innovate the theme discovery, narrative paradigm and artistic skills of online literature and art, and develop and innovate in related fields such as technology, industry, and communication.

Pay special attention to the large number of young audiences, and carry out artistic innovation according to their youthful, socialized and personalized characteristics. Create a youth culture in the new era and make young people the pioneers of the progress of the times. Teenagers are not only the inheritors of China's excellent traditional culture but also the ones responsible for the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.

4.2. Create a Good Network Literature and Art Ecology

The report of the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China pointed out that it is necessary to “strengthen the construction of Internet content, establish a comprehensive network governance system, and create a clear and clear cyberspace.” In recent years, in response to many chaos and problems in the field of online literature and art, relevant departments have promoted the application of traditional laws to the Internet and established special legislation in the Internet field. A multilayer law-based Internet governance system has been established, with the Administrative Measures for Internet Information Services as the basic regulations and special management measures for online audio-visual, online publishing, online literature, online live broadcast, and online games as the main content.

Laws such as the Cybersecurity Law, the Film Industry Promotion Law, and the Criminal Law Amendment (IX) have been passed, and the Measures for the Administration of the Internet and Other Information Network Dissemination of Audio-Visual Programs, the Regulations on the Administration of Internet Audio-Visual Program Services, and the Internet Provisions on the Administration of Publishing Services, “Interim Measures for the Administration of Internet Advertisements,” “Regulations on the Administration of Internet Live Streaming Services,” “Notice on Strengthening the Copyright Management of Online Literary Works,” “Regulations on the Administration of Internet Forum Community Services.” It provides an institutional guarantee for correcting the ecological imbalance and chaos of online literature and art, creating a clean and positive cyberspace, and promoting the healthy development of online literature and art.

In 2016, the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television issued the Notice on Further Strengthening the Planning and Management of Original Audio-Visual Programs on the Internet . In response to the problems of too many film and television stars, star chasing, pan-entertainment, high-priced film remuneration, and fraud in ratings (click-through rate) in some literary and artistic programs, it is emphasized that we must firmly grasp the correct political direction and strengthen value guidance. Adhere to the people-centered creative orientation and resolutely curb bad tendencies such as star chasing and star speculation and pan-entertainment. Encourage high-quality content to win, constantly innovate program forms, and strictly control the remuneration of guests. Strengthen the governance of TV dramas and online dramas (including online movies) to promote the sound development of the industry. Strengthen the use and management of ratings (click-through rate) survey data, and resolutely crack down on the fraudulent behavior of ratings (click-through rate).

In 2017, the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television issued the Notice on Further Strengthening the Management of the Creation and Broadcasting of Online Audio-Visual Programs , putting forward further requirements for the creation and broadcasting of online audio-visual programs. The notice pointed out that all kinds of online audio-visual programs must adhere to the aesthetic bottom line of civilization and health. Entertainment reports must respect morality and art and must not use the hype of scandals and privacy scandals as gimmicks to gain click-through rates.

Online variety shows, online dramas, and online movies must resolutely oppose unhealthy trends such as sky-high star chasing, boring games, and luxurious feasts and avoid promoting the game life mentality and exaggeration [ 18 ]. In addition, in view of the outstanding problems existing in the online video industry, online live broadcast and short video websites have been urged to self-check and correct themselves. Promote Internet companies to enhance their sense of responsibility and strengthen management measures. The Ministry of Culture and Tourism has organized online performances, centralized law enforcement inspections in the online game market, cleaned up prohibited content in the online cultural market, and standardized the order of elites in the online cultural market.

It is worth noting that for network platforms and operators, supervision measures still need to be further improved. For example, user identity verification is enabled for short video platforms, and content is selectively displayed to minors. The online platform is obliged to review and deal with online works and punish those works that are shoddy for rubbing hot spots and IP, works with vulgar and vulgar content, and works that spread obscenity, pornography, bloody violence. Effectively restrict minors' access to online games to prevent teenagers from indulging in online games.

4.3. Establish the Awareness of Network Literature and Art

In March 2019, General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out: “A country and a nation cannot be without a soul. Culture, literature and art, philosophy and social sciences belong to Bacon's soul-building work, occupying a very important position in the overall work of the party and the country, and insist on and develop Chinese characteristics in the new era. It plays a very important role in socialism.” In the era of all media, establishing the awareness of “quality is king” and promoting the quality of online literature and art production is the only way for the development, transformation and upgrading of online literature and art, and it is also the meaning of the title of realizing the function of “bacon casting the soul” of online literature and art.

The connotation of “high-quality products” of online literature and art includes two levels. One is the boutique in the sense of “product.” At the “product” level, quality means the intensive cultivation of online literature and art in terms of production, dissemination, and service. For example, in terms of production, the industrialized production process of online literature and art has become increasingly clear, the division of labor has become increasingly refined, and the application of technical means has become increasingly mature. This is the basic guarantee for the production of high-quality products. In terms of dissemination and service, accurate dissemination of literary and artistic works, finding suitable audiences, meeting the spiritual needs of audiences, and providing good postservice services are all elements and awareness of online literary and artistic works. The second is the fine product in the sense of “work.” At the level of “work,” quality means the improvement of online literature and art in terms of content and value.

High-quality content is the decisive factor for the sustainable development of the online literature and art industry. Therefore, online literature and art should reflect the life of the times, demonstrate the spirit of the times, take truth, and tell Chinese stories. As emphasized in the report of the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, “to prosper literary and artistic creation, adhere to the unity of profound thinking, exquisite art, and excellent production, strengthen the creation of realistic themes, and constantly launch masterpieces that praise the party, the motherland, the people, and the heroes.

In terms of value goals, the development of online literature and art should take “Bacon casts the soul” as its value appeal. Consolidate hundreds of millions of netizens with Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era and actively cultivate and practice socialist core values.

In terms of formal requirements, online literature and art must not only be “down-to-earth” but also “popular.” “Grounding Qi” means to truly express the feelings, thoughts, hopes, and wishes of the people living on our land. “Gathering popularity” means that the form is popular, and it should warm people, infect people, educate people, unite people, inspire people, carry forward the truth, goodness and beauty, and transmit positive energy.

5. Conclusion

In the context of the continuous development of digital, intelligent and networked emerging technologies, it has had a profound impact on the creation and dissemination of online literature and art. But at the same time, we should keep in mind that culture is the foundation of the lasting innovation and development of network literature and art. Network literature and art should grasp the laws of digital and new media communication development and build a comprehensive and three-dimensional Chinese-style strategic communication system. In order to meet the spiritual and cultural needs of the people and the mission of spreading Chinese culture to the outside world, we will continue to create high-quality, high-standard masterpieces that can stand the test of the international market and the test of people around the world.

Acknowledgments

This work partial achievements of the Research Project of Humanities and Social Sciences in Colleges and Universities in Jiangxi Province “the current situation and development trend of network literature and art from the perspective of literary sociology” (Project no. jc161012).

Data Availability

Conflicts of interest.

The author declares that there are no conflicts of interest.

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InfoQ Homepage News Google Trains User Interface and Infographics Understanding AI Model ScreenAI

Google Trains User Interface and Infographics Understanding AI Model ScreenAI

Apr 16, 2024 2 min read

Anthony Alford

Infoq article contest.

Google Research recently developed ScreenAI , a multimodal AI model for understanding infographics and user interfaces. ScreenAI is based on the PaLI architecture and achieves state-of-the-art performance on several tasks.

ScreenAI is pre-trained on a dataset of screenshots generated by crawling the web and automatically interacting with apps. The researchers used several off-the-shelf models AI to generate synthetic training data, including OCR to annotate the screenshots and an LLM to generate user questions about the screenshots. After pretraining and fine-tuning, the result is a five billion parameter model that can answer questions about UI screens and infographics, as well as summarize or navigate screens. ScreenAI set new performance records on the WebSRC and MoTIF benchmarks, and outperformed other similarly-sized models on the Chart QA , DocVQA , and InfographicVQA benchmarks. To help the wider research community in developing and evaluating similar models, Google released three new evaluation datasets for screen-based question-answering (QA) models. According to Google: 

While our model is best-in-class, we note that, on some tasks, further research is needed to bridge the gap with models like GPT-4 and Gemini, which are orders of magnitude larger. To encourage further research, we re- lease a dataset with this unified representation, as well as two other datasets to enable more comprehensive benchmarking of models on screen-related tasks.

ScreenAI is based on the Pathways Language and Image model (PaLI) architecture, which combines a Vision Transformer (ViT) with an encoder-decoder Large Language Model (LLM), such as T5. The Google team made a key modification to this base architecture. Because UIs and infographics often have a "wide variety of resolutions and aspect ratios," they modified the image patching step of the ViT to use the patching strategy from the Pix2Struct model. This allows the model to adjust the patch grid according to the input image's shape.

To generate pretraining data, the researchers first created an automated annotation pipeline. This system, given a screenshot image, can detect and classify UI and infographic elements such as images, pictograms, text, and buttons. The result is a screen schema  annotation, which lists the UI elements along with bounding boxes indicating their location within the screen.

The screen schema data is then used to generate synthetic training data. The team fed the schema to an LLM along with a prompt telling the LLM the schema represents a screenshot and asking the LLM to generate questions a human user might ask about the screenshot. The researchers also had the LLM generate summarizations of the screenshots. Overall, the final dataset contained around 400M samples.

To evaluate the model, the researchers fine-tuned it on several publicly available datasets for navigation, summarization, and QA. They compared the model's performance to state-of-the-art (SOTA) as well as to other models with 5B parameters or fewer. In addition to setting new SOTA performance on two benchmarks and outperforming other 5B parameter models on three  benchmarks, it was "competitive" on two additional benchmarks.

Several users of X posted their thoughts about ScreenAI. One wondered whether Google might use the model for ranking search results. Another wrote :

The competition is heating up. GPT-4 Vision already faces strong competition from Qwen-VL-Max, and now it seems Google is entering the arena with ScreenAI. Google's entry better impress!

Although Google has not released the model code or weights, they have open-sourced their evaluation datasets ScreenQA and Screen Annotation on GitHub.

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Immigration Sponsorship is not available for this role. For more information regarding who is eligible for hire at P&G along with other work authorization FAQ’s, please click HERE.

Procter & Gamble participates in e-verify as required by law.

Qualified individuals will not be disadvantaged based on being unemployed.

We will ensure that individuals with disabilities are provided reasonable accommodation to participate in the job application or interview process, to perform essential job functions, and to receive other benefits and privileges of employment. Please contact us to request accommodation.

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Starting Pay / Salary Range

$29.00 – $50.00 / hour