Readers between media in a school context - aspects of reading experienced by 6th grade students

The chapter will analyze reading experiences of 6th grade students in their meeting, in a school context, with a fantasy story which they read as either a paper book, an audio book or a digital narrative. On a phenomenological basis will be analyzed aspects of reading experiences which can be divided into two categories: A) Formal aspects associated with sensory experiences of the three different formats and B) Substantive aspects related to atmospheres/moods, identification and the existential resonance of the story. Theoretically, the analyses are based on literary materialism (Hayles 2002, 2004, 2008, McGann 1991) and theories which contribute knowledge of the reader’s attachment to literature (Gumbrecht 2011, Felski 2008 and 2020). The analysis sets out to identify various aspects of what can be characteristic of the reading experiences of 11 and 12-year-olds when they read from different formats (audio, paper and digital) and how they express their thoughts about their reading of literature.