Booktubers in the classroom teaching experiences on the dynamics of online literary criticism

Abstract

In this article we show the results of a teaching experience conducted at a university classroom and based on the dynamics of booktubers with the aim of promoting reflection and criticism around literature. The project aims to highlight how YouTube can be an effective tool to encourage critical reading and to reflect about the dynamics and ways of expression of literature, given its success among the youngest. Besides, it invites students to explain complex literary aspects and to discuss their critical, theoretical and historical dimensions in order to discern the role they have nowadays and how they are assumed in the context of new creative and reading habits. The goal was to enable a better understanding of the contents of the subject Literary Theory and to broaden the strategies that would foster the creativity and active participation of students by introducing horizontal learning dynamics. The high number of participants (191) offers a sufficiently large sample to analyze the impact that this experience has had on their training in specific and transversal skills of the subject, and to obtain the students’ own evaluation of this.