In their new article, “Media, modality, and motivation in literary-aesthetic experience: exploring auditory and visual reception of literature”, Annika Ahrens-Schwabe, Hajo Boomgaarden, and their co-authors examine how audiobooks and print reading shape literary perception and experience. Drawing on a praxeological framework and focus group discussions with 34 regular audiobook listeners, the study investigates the interplay between medium, motivations, reception situations, and practices.

Their findings show that audiobook listening is not perceived as either inferior or superior to reading. Instead, a diversity of perspectives emerges, with participants describing it as a distinct mode of literary reception shaped by different motivations, practices, and contexts.

This research provides important insights into the evolving practices of literary reception in the digital age and challenges conventional assumptions about the hierarchy between reading and listening.

Read the full article here: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.poetic.2025.102021

Cite the article:

Kosch, L., Stocker, G., Ahrens-Schwabe, A., & Boomgaarden, H. (2025). Media, modality, and motivation in literary-aesthetic experience: exploring auditory and visual reception of literature. Poetics, 111, 102021. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.poetic.2025.102021