Die Hofmeisterin
Dedicated to deep reading
The digital revolution has ushered in a new way of reading. Confronted with a steady diet of short informational and entertaining copy, many readers have developed speed-reading practices that allow them to quickly grasp the gist of a text, rapidly form an opinion and move on to the next one. These hyper-reading skills are increasingly replacing the deep-reading skills that have developed over centuries and formed the foundation for secondary and post-secondary education. They are the basis of a modern democratic future-oriented civil society.
That’s why developing and preserving deep reading skills is so important!
As recent research has shown, deep reading offers readers a level of satisfaction and reflection hyper-reading cannot not provide. Deep readers are asked to follow complex arguments and invited to enter fictional and non-fictional worlds that enhance their own lived experience.
The act of reading opens up the view of a temporal trinity. It confronts us with another daily routine, another life, another era. And we understand: There exists a different way of being in the world.–Hartmut Rosa
Research has also shown that the deep reading of complex texts can act as powerful antidote to the loss of concentration and focus that can be traced to prolonged screen-time. Moving screens present content in a linear form. They do not allow readers to follow their own inner rhythm or processing speed. As a result, screen readers have a much harder time integrating the information. The physical interaction with the book–flipping back a few pages, rereading a sentence, underlining or scribbling comments or questions in the margins–provides room for reflection and interaction. In our age, the act of deep reading is a counter-cultural practice.
Reading is the most unencumbered cultural activity there is. – Annie Ernaux
Die Hofmeisterin provides a forum for all those who wish to engage in deep reading.
Opportunities exist for beginning readers of German (Heritage) as well as native and near-native speakers of German who want to expand their knowledge and understanding of seminal works of German literature (Salon).
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