FLASH FICTION AND MODERN ATTENTION CULTURE: A LITERARY RESPONSE TO DIGITAL AGE READING

Abstract

 This article examines flash fiction as a literary form uniquely positioned within the framework of modern attention culture. In an era characterized by digital media saturation, shortened attention spans, and rapid information consumption, flash fiction emerges not merely as a condensed narrative form but as a strategic aesthetic response to contemporary reading practices. Drawing on theories of attention economy, reader-response criticism, and narrative minimalism, the study explores how brevity, fragmentation, and narrative gaps function as adaptive techniques that engage digitally conditioned readers. Rather than representing a decline in literary complexity, flash fiction demonstrates how compression intensifies meaning, heightens reader participation, and reconstructs narrative depth within limited textual space. The article argues that flash fiction reflects the cognitive rhythms of the digital age while simultaneously resisting passive consumption through ambiguity, implication, and open-ended structure. By situating flash fiction within broader cultural and technological shifts, this study positions the genre as both a product of and a critical response to modern attention culture.