Vol. 8 No. 1 (2020): Teaching Digital Literature
Despite the evident disproportion between the volume of research on electronic literature and that on teaching electronic literature, over the past quarter of century some important approaches to electronic literature teaching have emerged. Particularly in the field of digital humanities, but also in the introduction of electronic literature in formal education – from kindergarten and elementary school, to high school and university. Currently, research on teaching of electronic literature is done by bringing electronic literature into the classroom and by introducing digital literary reading experiences to students. However these practices are almost absent at all teaching levels, perhaps because the so-called digital immigrants, and not the natives, are the ones still currently in charge. The biggest educational changes have not yet reached schools in a meaningful way, with the exception of some universities.
By no means does the study of electronic literature aim to deny or replace traditional print literature. On the contrary, it intends to open up new literary horizons, by reading and using different forms of text that develop students’ literary competence, eventually also enhancing print literature reading. E-lit teaching should also take into account the potential consequences of having digital natives in class for teaching and learning practices. In fact, research on electronic literature teaching has tended to be more analytical than practical, so it is important to share pedagogical and didactic experiments and show how these need to adapt to the subject of electronic literature or to digital skills.
From the researchers’ perspective, a lot of efforts have been made in order to expand literary studies’ analysis and terminology to electronic literature studies and to create a special electracy, i.e., new lens to see electronic literature beyond the print literacy model. These efforts address the lack of critical models to guide the interpretation of these works and of specific terminology to analyze and teach electronic literature. Apart from demanding familiarity with digital literary features, e-lit teaching also raises the question of whether teachers and students should have knowledge about coding, or whether it is possible to teach and to fully engage with digital works without that specific knowledge.
Finally, should the current educational context take advantage of the hidden curriculum of digital native students by critically exploring the creative, ludic and aesthetic possibilities offered by digital objects? Can teachers, librarians, reading mediators and other literary education agents ignore digital literature for children and young adults, given the fact that it invites the playful participation of young readers, expanding their creative, imaginative and critical skills? How relevant are those artefacts and their aesthetic and expressive dimensions for the development of a critical digital literacy? These are some of the questions addressed in the current issue of MATLIT, which contains a selection of articles originally presented at the international conference "Teaching Digital Literature", organized by the PhD Programme in Materialities of Literature and the Centre for Portuguese Literature at the School of Arts and Humanities, University of Coimbra, on July 25-26, 2019.
Ana Maria Machado (University of Coimbra)
Ana Albuquerque e Aguilar (University of Coimbra)
