Read and Do What You Want... Young (E-)Readers in a Classroom on the Outskirts of the Gutenberg Galaxy

Emotions have become an increasingly valuable element of reading studies, literary theory and empirical research on reader response. Here, I discuss some new issues in the field of affective studies on literary reading. This article is an overview of some main consequences of digital revolution (e.g. redefinition of reading, reading habits, and reading experiential values). These cultural changes challenge the classroom teaching of literature. I suggest, that the new media and technologies have a deep impact on the traditionally conceptualized ideas of “reader response”, “emotional involvement”, since they activate new forms of reading experiences and new modes for expressing them. The socially-based and interactive environment has been transforming the ways people (young readers) engage in reading texts and this seems to be a newly emerging object of research for the empirical literary studies on reader response.