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Literature and Transformation: A Narrative Study of Life-Changing Reading Experiences

Literature and Transformation: A Narrative Study of Life-Changing Reading Experiences

Hardcover

Series: Anthem Studies in Bibliotherapy and Well-Being

Literary CriticismMental Health

ISBN10: 1785272942
ISBN13: 9781785272943
Publisher: Anthem Pr
Published: Feb 19 2020
Pages: 238
Weight: 1.15
Height: 0.69 Width: 6.00 Depth: 9.00
Language: English

This book is an inquiry of how the reading of imaginative literature may be experienced as life changing. Previous research has shown that many readers have found a particular work of fiction to be of significant help to them in dealing with personal issues. Furthermore, experimental studies reveal that readers experience self-modifying feelings during the act of reading. Research in psychological aesthetics indicates that the hitherto neglected phenomenon of being moved may be central to transformative experiences with art, and may be a more productive point of departure than emotion-based approaches. How may transformative aesthetic experiences produce lasting change and become integrated into the person's life-story, and how is such subjective change related to the experience of being moved? The aim of this book is, through interviews with readers who have experienced life-changing encounters with particular works of fiction, to present new knowledge about transformative reading experiences and the relationships between life-crises, affective modes of transaction with literary works, and qualitative change experiences. Such knowledge will contribute to our understanding of the affective aspects of reading and life-stories of change. This theoretical knowledge may also have practical application for the intermediation of literature. The investigation has a trans-disciplinary orientation towards reader response studies, literary scholarship, psychological aesthetics and narrative psychology.

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Literary Criticism