Different modes of reading - eighth-grade students' interaction with a digital narrative

How do 14-15-year-olds experience, read and interact physically, sensory and verbally with a digital narrative? This question will be the focal point for the chapter which is based on a case study of students’ navigation and aesthetic interplay with the digital narrative NORD. The basic theoretical understanding and qualitative method of the study is a phenomenological approach based on the analytical scope of the study which focuses on the students’ interaction with the digital narrative and especially on their bodily and sensory exchange with the narrative. Therefore, the analysis will focus on two aspects of the students’ interaction: First, their navigation in the game spaces and between expressions of form such as text, picture and sound, with a focus on their bodily being-in-the-world and interaction with the digital interface (Keogh 2018, Walter 2005, Walther and Larsen 2019, and Hayles 2002 and 2008). Secondly, the aesthetical interplay between text and reader/player with a focus on their aesthetic response and immersion (Baumgarten 2012, Felski 2008 and 2020).