The concept of "transformation" will be addressed both through literary theory and through the analysis of narrative, stylistic and thematic features. Transformative reading (Fialho, 2019) requires both a text and a reader in a reciprocal experience at a particular time and place. In this encounter, a fluid exchange takes place in which both text and reader are mutually modified. From this perspective, literariness does not depend on a set of formal textual properties or conventions. It involves the strategies readers employ to reconceptualise their experience. The underlying assumption here is that responses to literary texts combine verbal, emotional and cognitive elements that may account for the distinctiveness of the literary experience. In this sense, this course gives an introduction into literature’s relation to such processes as identification, imagery, and sympathy, and the consequences they may have for personal configurations.
During the course, students will learn about the role of transformative reading in shaping readers’ experiences and discuss how such theories as the dehabituation theory of literature (Miall, 2006) help us understand the relevance of literature to readers’ lives. Such insights will derive from examining novels considered to be “transformative”, and discussing the form of these novels as well as the historical contexts in which they were written.
Upon completing this course, students will:
Understand the role of transformative reading in shaping the reader’s experience