Abstract: The correlation between the process of textualization and the development of literature in the eighteenth-century Germany constituted the basic historical context of Goethe's novel, Die Leiden des jungen Werthers. The textualization not only made long-distance communication possible, but also minimized physical interaction. The development of media served the needs of emotional exchanges and, at the same time, generated new patterns of social interactions. The novel incorporates paratexts like “editor” and “preface”, which were promoted by the print culture, into its fictional narrative while perfecting the epistolary narrative, namely, the media of communication that had been pushed onto a more advanced stage by the pietism and sentimentalism. The void, which occurs due to the absence of the letter receiver in the novel, may be filled by the anonymous reader. The confusing mixture of reality and fiction leads the reader to a baffling reception and poses a challenge to aesthetic reflection. The advancement of print culture produced new forms of articulation and promoted the development of cultural technologies while curtailing face-to-face interactions. Experience and media always find themselves in a tense relationship simply because the former requires directness, whereas the latter needs distance.

Key words: Die Leiden des jungen Werthers, media, letter, editor, textualization