The Gist of Reading by Andrew Elfenbein (review)

Whereas meaning activation for a word in good-enough reading typically results in "rapid inhibition of contextually inappropriate meanings" (25), literary reading, which engages features like alliteration and rhyme, interferes with inhibition, enabling a broader activation of material stored in memory, even associations presumably disqualified by context. Employing a quantitative methodology to assess contemporaneous commentary, Elfenbein seeks to glean the gist memories of actual nineteenth-century readers and arrives at two tentative conclusions: works were remembered either as the focus of a specific reading event, often related to the environment, or as objects of knowledge. [...]in chapter 7, Elfenbein argues against literary criticism's generally monolithic conception of influence, explaining that it may be superficial, deep, or ambiguous, and clearly illustrating this point in his nuanced consideration of Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray.