Read and comment on great works of the European literature with students and readers from all over the continent on the brand new social reading app Betwyll.
Social Reading Hugs Europe is a social reading project aimed to creatively engage high school students in an international debate around our values and shared cultural heritage. How? By reading and commenting on excerpts from 10 classics of the European literature on the social reading app Betwyll.
Social reading on Betwyll: how it works
On Betwyll people can read and comment directly from their smartphones on the same texts at the same time by following a shared reading schedule (i.e. a text every two days).
The texts are published onto the app, where participants “meet” to read and discuss them through short messages of 140 characters, which appear as annotations to the paragraphs. The resulting conversations enrich the reading experience, encouraging deep reading and opening space for further debate.
The books you will read
Here’s our selection of the first 10 works we will read and comment on through Social Reading Hugs Europe:
- Italy | Dante Alighieri, Divine Comedy
- The Netherlands | Erasmus from Rotterdam, Praise of Folly
- Spain | Miguel De Cervantes, Don Quixote
- UK | William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet
- Germany | Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Faust
- Finland | Elias Lönnrot, The Kalevala
- Denmark | Hans Christian Andersen, The Emperor’s New Clothes
- Sweden | Selma Lagerlöf, The Wonderful Adventures of Nils
- France | Marcel Proust, Swann’s Way
- Czech Republic | Josef Kafka, The Metamorphosis
The project goals
Social Reading Hugs Europe aims to foster a collective reflection on the European identity and values as an asset to address the current emergency situation caused by the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic. The rediscovery of our shared cultural heritage might in fact help to raise awareness of what unites us as Europeans and made the European dream take shape.
For this reason the project, designed by Italian non-profit Associazione Culturale Twitteratura, was among the winners of the 2020 Culture of Solidarity Grant funded by the European Cultural Foundation and Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Torino.
Social Reading Hugs Europe will be implemented through 2022 and will involve students from all over Europe in a collective reflection on Betwyll. In order to allow interaction among students from different nationalities, the project language will be English.
About
Associazione Culturale Twitteratura is an Italian non-profit founded in 2013. We promote social reading through the TwLetteratura method and the social reading app Betwyll. Here, readers and learners of all ages can read and comment on cultural contents, combining deep reading with social networking.
The TwLetteratura method was acknowledged among the 15 good practices to promote reading in the digital environment by the European Commission. The pedagogical quality of the Betwyll app was certified by Education Alliance Finland, the main certifier for edtech solutions in the world.
Our social reading project on the Ventotene Manifesto won the 2019 Spinelli Prize.
