In the framework of the lecture “Digital Literature - Hypertext to AI” by Univ.-Prof. Dr. Julia Hoydis
THURSDAY 13th November 2025
15:15 / 3:15 PM
HS 11.01
While podcasting emerged as a new and decidedly DIY medium in the early 2000s, the number of professional productions has skyrocketed in recent years. Today, podcasts are frequently produced and hosted by celebrities, YouTubers, streamers, and comedians, reflecting their mainstream cultural presence. Alongside these “chatcasts,” which centre on banter and casual conversation between hosts and their guests, there are also scripted podcasts that remediate established genres such as true crime and audio drama. With this wide array of podcast texts readily available online, podcast studies has developed into its own field, drawing on theoretical insights and methodological approaches from disciplines such as radio and sound studies, media studies, cultural studies, and literary studies. In my talk, I will introduce podcasting as a relatively new medium and present ways of approaching podcasts as digital literature from a cultural and literary studies perspective. In particular, I will demonstrate methods of close reading and “close listening” through the fan podcast The Gayly Prophet (2019–2022).
Bio:
Dr Anne Korfmacher is a postdoctoral researcher and lecturer at University of Graz. Her research and teaching area is English literature and culture from the eighteenth to the twenty-first century and her current research project is interested in the narrative manifestation of resilience in anglophone prose fiction from the nineteenth century to the present. She has previously published on the topics of gender, sexuality, fan cultures, and podcasting, including the first monograph on fan podcast genres titled Fan Podcasts: Rewatch, Recap, Review (2024).