Suchergebnisse

An account is given of a new research project that is concerned with examining the problems encountered by some young blind children as they learn to read braille. The research to be conducted will look at various developmental and learning theories that are used to explain the reading difficulties of sighted readers, with a view to ascertaining their relevance to the teaching and learning of braille.

New technologies are changing our reading habits. Laptops, e-readers, tablets and other handheld devices supply new platforms for reading, and we must learn to manage them by scrolling, clicking or tapping. Reading Today places reading in current literary and cultural contexts in order to analyse how these contexts challenge our conceptions of who reads, what reading is, how we read, where we read, and for what purposes – and then responds to the questions this analysis raises. Is our reading experience becoming a 'flat' one? And does reading in a media environment favour quick reading? Alongside these questions, the contributors unpack emerging strategies of reading.They consider, for example, how paying attention to readers' emotional reactions as an indispensable component of reading affects our conception of the reading process. Other chapters consider how reading can be explored through such topics as experimental literature, the contemporary encyclopedic novel and the healing power of books.

Der vorliegende Aufsatz stellt die Frage, wie wir heute, im Zeitalter des digitalen Texts, lesen und nimmt dabei verschiedene Formen des Lesens in den Blick. Die ersten drei Abschnitte des vorliegenden Aufsatzes skizzieren die Techniken des Close und Deep Reading, des Distant Reading und des Hyper und Social Reading in ihren Grundzügen. Aufbauend auf diesen Begriffsgeschichten und -bestimmungen besprechen wir in den folgenden Abschnitten die Möglichkeiten, Grenzen und Risiken der unterschiedlichen Lesetechniken. Dabei tauchen Fragen auf wie: welchen Nutzen können Verlage und Buchhandlungen wie Amazon aus den Interpretationen ziehen, die Social Readers bereitwillig ins Netz stellen? Ermöglicht die computergestützte Analyse grosser digitalisierter Textmengen tatsächlich, wie von Distant Readers propagiert, eine objektivierte Form der Literaturgeschichtsschreibung? Vernachlässigt beim Close Reading die ausschliessliche Fokussierung auf den Text selbst nicht gerade das, was für viele Leserinnen die Literatur lesenswert macht, ihre Einbettung in historische und gesellschaftliche Zusammenhänge? Im zweiten Teil dieses Aufsatzes werden die jeweiligen Lesetechniken aus kulturkritischer Sicht auf ihre kognitiven und gesellschaftlichen Wirkungen, ihre wissenschaftspolitische (Selbst-)Positionierung und ihren Erkenntniswert hin befragt.

The changing state of reading and its fate in the digitalised world is one of the core issues in the contemporary debates about the future of culture. The central position of the printed word, and primarily, books as the most valuable cultural medium and the main source of knowledge, are becoming questioned in the age of the Internet. Reading as gateway to the world of fantasies has been challenged by powerful audiovisual media. Is the pleasure of reading as a creative process involving imagination and self-cognition disappearing, and being replaced by the quick exchange of impressions and images in social media? Are these critical notes and concerns about the future of reading just rapid generalisations and misunderstandings, evoked by the invasion of new technologies in the old and well-established world of books? The articles gathered here represent empirical studies, theoretical and historical reflections on the changes in the world of books and reading in the Baltic and Nordic countries, as well as descriptions of the new library practices that reflect the creative efforts to adapt to the changing social and technological environment.