Persistence of Reading in the Digital Age

Meike G. Werner is the Centennial Chair of German Studies and Professor of European and German Studies at Vanderbilt University, USA, where she also serves as Director of the Max Kade Center for European and German STudies. She has published widely on German literature and culture from the 19th to 20th century. From 2020 to 2023, Werner served as President of the American Friends of Marbach (AFM).

• List of IllustrationsNotes on ContributorsIntroduction Meike G. Werner, Vanderbilt University, USAPART I. Reading and the Formation of Political Culture in the Nineteenth Century1. Popularizing Political Literacy: Publishers and Readers in the Early Nineteenth Century James M. Brophy, University of Delaware, USA2. The Invention of Terrorism: Writing, Reading, and Terrorism in Mid-Nineteenth-Century GermanyCarola Dietze, Technical University Braunschweig, Germany3. Practices of Virtuous, Vicious, and Controlled Reading - A CommentKirk Wetters, Yale University, USAPART II. Reading and Visual Modernity in the Weimar Republic4. The Weimar Reading Republic: An Experiment in Pluralism Kerstin Barndt, University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, USA5. Reading with the Avant-Garde. Jan Tschichold’s The New Typography Patrizia C. McBride, Cornell University, USA6. Visual Literacy: Reading Photobooks in Weimar GermanyVerena Kick, Georgetown University, USA7. Reading as Cultural Practice in the Weimar Republic - A CommentLynn Wolff, Michigan State University, USAPART III. Reading Strategies after 19458. Staging Self-Interpretation: F. C. Delius Reads Himself Carol Anne Costabile-Heming, University of North Texas, USA9. Regarding the Books of Others: Reading Scenes on ScreenMartina Kolb, Susquehanna University, USA10. Looking into the Open: Childhood Reading as Paradigm Stephen D. Dowden, Brandeis University, USA11. Nevertheless, It Persisted: Self-, Meta-, and Childlike Reading - A Comment Johannes von Moltke, University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, USAPART IV. Reading and Digital Innovation12. Creativity in the Digital Age: How Do Readers Perceive and Evaluate Artificial-Intelligence-Written Poetry?Vivian Emily Gunser, University of Tübingen, Germany 13. Southern Romance Reading in the Muncie Public Library, 1891-1902: A Digital Humanities-Aided Approach to Studying Reader PreferenceLynne Tatlock, Stephen Pentecost, and Douglas Knox, Washington University in St. Louis, USA14. Ötzi’s Dagger: On the Use and Disadvantage of Reading for LifeJames McFarland, Vanderbilt University, USA15. Digital Reading: Empirical and Data-Driven Research - A CommentMatthew Handelman, Michigan State University, USAPART V. Afterlives of Texts: Reading in the Archive16. Reading Traces in the Archive: Writers' Libraries at the German Literature Archive MarbachSarah Gaber, University of Oldenburg, Germany17. Between Manuscript and Print: Reading the Last Lines of Joseph Roth's Novel Die Flucht ohne EndeJan Bürger, German Literature Archive Marbach, GermanyIndex