This article responds to this special issue's overarching interest in the relation between modes of reading and the experiences of actual readers by analyzing how the specific practice of shared reading facilitates readers’ engagement in literary reading. The article responds both to an under-investigated dimension of the practice of shared reading, that of the role of facilitation, and to a pressing articulated and educational need to develop additional and better methodologies for fostering literary reading engagement, as existing results from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation's Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) have demonstrated the importance of reading engagement for both academic achievement and social mobility. By linking the notion of engagement within the PISA framework with phenomenologically oriented empirical research on expressive reading and the notion of emergent thinking in existing shared reading research, the article argues for the role of the reader leader in facilitating literary engagement. These connections may inspire literary scholars to consider the link between literary analysis and the didactics of literary reading.
Does fiction reading make us better people? Empathy and morality in a literary empowerment programmeStudies have proposed that participatory arts, particularly literature reading, enhance empathy, supposedly leading to enhanced moral judgment. Building on fieldwork in a Literary Empowerment Programme for people with mental vulnerabilities in Denmark, I seek to qualify the role of empathy, the ability to imaginatively put yourself in other people's shoes, when reading literature in a social setting. I describe encounters with empathy and the limits thereof, as it happened in the reading groups investigated. Taking inspiration from Jarrett Zigon, these encounters are situated within the moral and ethical assemblage of the programme, whose objective was to create 'literary free spaces'. I connect this objective to Scandinavian and Scottish Enlightenment values of freedom, equality and civil society. These insights are finally used to discuss future pathways for the anthropology of literature and reading, moving beyond a focus on understanding and meaning-making processes.
This article builds on ethnographic fieldwork in shared reading groups for mentally vulnerable young people in Denmark. Shared reading is a technique in which prose and poetry are read aloud with breaks, allowing time for discussion. It is increasingly used in Denmark for mental health improvement. In our analysis,
First day in Aarhus, first postcard to you. Couches and armchairs arranged in a circle; light reflected off the white photocopies. The protagonist mused on what people sound like on the telephone and how they are in real life. Like when you hear people on the radio and their voice sounds vital, Kim said, and then you see them and they're small-and strange.April 30, 2018, Aarhus Not as quiet as last time, "Open letter to Vilhelm," a story about a former couple finding new lovers. Thea pictured "men of paper-papercuts" in her inner vision. Alma admitted that the romantic filter can disappear when you fall out of love. Ina mostly just listened and stared into space.I promise to explain all of this, when I have a bit more time.May 10, 2018, Aarhus Uhm, humans! Tina said as she entered. She spilled tea in the middle of the reading. American Oreos and a text by Virginia Woolf (Solid Objects). People were red and brown from the sun.I think of you often.June 14, 2018, Aarhus "No" by Adda Djørup: the death theme looms this spring. Nynne lost the thread when everyone looked at her. A whoosh from the back door when Lilian read about dead relatives, "moonfaced by prednisolone." Dream cake, peaches, and licorice candy.June 21, 2018, Aarhus Emeli Bergman's Artefacts: Syracuse, an abortion, and a broken love relationship. The room contracted as Tina told us about her own abortion and relationship: "That was the final nail in our coffin. But I never really dreamed of being a mother." Beautifully arranged cakes, grapes, and strawberries.
‘Mentally vulnerable’ young people are a strong focal point in public debate and policy in Denmark at present, and a variety of cultural activities are now being offered to them. Building on ethnographic fieldwork (April 2018-August 2019) with so-called mentally vulnerable young women (aged 18-36) who meet in literature reading groups, this article seeks to connect the reading group with the phenomenon of ‘mental vulnerability’, first through a review of the historical emergence and contemporary use of the term, and second by considering what (painful) experiences the term signifies for individuals belonging to this category. This contextualization involves a discussion of literature on the role of context in anthropological analyses. The article concludes with an empirical contradiction: the reading group provides a sanctuary from everyday demands for purposefulness and productivity, but it can also be used as a strategy for navigating such demands.
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