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Abstract
Writers and literature enjoy a prominent position in the culture and society of the German-speaking world. Today, German-speaking authors actively cultivate an online presence through publishers websites, personal webpages, blogs, and online forums. In this way, the Internet has transformed the literary reading experience of yore into a four-skill media extravaganza. This engenders unrivaled access to the aural, textual, and visual environment in which literary texts reside, a multisensory world in which our students thrive. This essay proposes that audio and video files can fill the gap between how students read and how literature typically has been taught. By analyzing recordings of authors reading their work, performing their work, and being interviewed about their work available in online databases, radio podcasts, and video segments, students learn to access literary texts aurally. This expanded context can revitalize literature for the contemporary language classroom. Following a theoretical introduction about reading in the Digital Age, we present strategies for implementation in sample lesson plans. Our approach exemplifies how combining authorial voices with texts elevates reading to a multimedia experience that increases both listening and reading comprehension.
INTRODUCTION
Literature maintains a prominent position in the German-speaking world, where novels, poetry, and theatre productions serve as barometers for cultural trends and social issues, and writers frequently are called upon to comment on a myriad of questions of public interest, including issues of political relevance. The strong reading culture found in German-speaking countries is evidenced by audiobook and print book sales. From 2018 through 2022, nearly 7 million people in Germany aged 14 and older purchased at least one audiobook in the previous 12 months (Davies, 2022). The print book market is equally robust, generating more than 7.9 million euros in revenue in 2021 (Davies, 2023). It is no surprise then that authors have attained celebrity prominence in German-speaking societies. Yet undoubtedly, the advent of the Internet and the ensuing Digital Age have transformed the lives and practices of writers and readers. The outbreak of a global pandemic in 2020 accelerated transformations in the way readers and authors engaged with each other, as health and safety measures forced the transition from the printed page to the electronic text and from live in-person readings and panel discussions to livestreamed literary...