Literature thriving in the digital age

Studying English is still relevant in the digital age, according to Massey University’s Bill Angus.

The Shakespeare specialist and English lecturer ran an NCEA English day for secondary school students this week, covering topics like how smartphone and comics can contribute to how literature is taught.

Angus said it was an opportunity to advertise what the English department at Massey offered and give students a look at studying admired literary works.

The workshops the department ran were comic strips and microfiction, cellphones and film, creative writing, metatheatre and Shakespeare’s metadrama: Hamlet.

‘‘When the internet started people asked: Is this going to kill off literature?’’ Angus said. ‘‘When I was a kid the big anxiety was television and kids wouldn’t know how to read because kids spend all of their time in front of a television.

‘‘With the internet they’re all reading all the time. This is an amazing opportunity.’’

He said students were just reading in a different format. Now, in lectures, students were doing further reading or checking information on the laptops or smart phones.

There was a culture of commenting and the internet was an amazing aide to learning.

Angus said with the rise of digital technology, some questioned the relevance of studying English, but he felt there was no need for paranoia about digitalisation.

He hoped the NCEA day would inspire students by showing them how literature in all forms could offer alternative ways of thinking, and he said one of Massey’s strengths was the ability to pull together all the aspects of the English department.

Angus believes his specialist topic, Shakespeare, is still just as relevant too.

He said a pop-up Globe Theatre in Auckland could pull as many people as a Justin Beiber concert.

There were students from Manawatu¯ , Taranaki and Hawke’s Bay at the event, including Freyberg High School students Sean Scott, Anna Fairweather, Kadie Wilson and Elena Lovei.

Lovei, 17, said the day showed them ideas they hadn’t considered.

WARWICK SMITH/STUFF Koyana Shastri, of Taradale High School, performs in a theatre workshop as part of NCEA English day at Massey University.