Reading is never neutral, never distant: it always makes a difference, it always interferes. That is the message—in theory and practice—of this volume insightfully edited by Kai Merten. In an entangled conversation of topics and voices, Diffractive Reading has a double goal: refining a methodology and involving more readers in the process. Reality, it tells you, is in the making even as you read these words.

Serenella Iovino, Professor of Italian Studies and Environmental Humanities, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, co-editor of Material Ecocriticism

How do we read a text, the world, the ideas of others, together? In this important book, Kai Merten gathers a range of contributions from different parts of academia, showing us the power of reading all that matters diffractively. These are affirmative and engaged mappings of a world in the making. A must read for all involved in how to analyse the contemporary.

Rick Dolphijn, Assistant Professor in Media Theory/Cultural Theory, Utrecht University