50 years of reading Texts, worlds, and ourselves

This article serves as an introduction to the special issue of Beyond Philology entitled “Experiencing Textual Media: Contemporary Perspectives”. It takes into consideration the relative theoretical entrenchment that scholars tend to experience in their professional development. underlining its beneficial influence on the development of complex reading methodologies, while advocating for a revisionist position. The authors claim that the multimodal narrative culture of today demands systematic commentary that draws from tradition but responds to what is new. The long-standing schools of reading established at the Institute of English and American Studies are celebrated as foundational for the academic development of generations of scholars across Poland.