Produktdetaljer
Biografisk notat
Philip Davis is Emeritus Professor of English Literature at the University of Liverpool. Reading for Life is an account of the work done by his research unit, the Centre for Research into Reading, Literature and Society (CRILS) in partnership with outreach charity The Reader since 2008. He is author of works on Shakespeare, Samuel Johnson, George Eliot, Bernard Malamud, and on the uses of memory from Wordsworth to Lawrence, and has written various books on literary reading. He is editor of OUP's series The Literary Agenda on the role of literature in the world of the twenty-first century and a new series entitled My Reading.Davis' subjects have often tried many forms of therapy over many years, and he persuasively argues that literature, with its unpredictable and powerful effects, can help people break out of the rote narratives that therapy can inculcate, and make new and transformative discoveries. Davis, a professor of literature and psychology, trains his critical eye just as closely on the transcripts of the group sessions and interviews as on the literary works, many of which are included in part or in full.
Joanna Scutts, Times Literary Supplement
Philip Davis is brave in entering long forbidden waters, immersing himself not only in our emotional life as readers but also in the existential questions we have about ourselves, and about what life is. This is how we ought to be teaching literature, or, at least, how we ought to be making this kind of experience available for those who want it. I was so excited reading it, I could hardly contain myself: Reading for Life is a legitimization of everything that makes literature great.
Jane Tompkins, Professor of English, Emerita, Duke University
Reading for Life deserves to be called transformative. When I was about halfway through Reading for Life, I found myself pulling neglected books off my shelf and reading these rediscovered books with a closer attention to their language and a renewed intensity of response. Reading for Life is a book not only about reading; it has the potential to create a changed reader.
Arthur Frank, Literature & Medicine
Powerful and urgent, Reading for Life by Philip Davis shows how poetry and fiction can make a difference.
Marina Warner, President of the Royal Society of Literature
With its extraordinary mix of literature, neuroscience, history, and case studies, this beautifully written book exemplifies the alchemy that can happen when words come to life on the page. Reading can change the trajectory of a life, which changes our society, which propels our future species. Philip Davis shows us why this is so.
Maryanne Wolf, Director at Center for Dyslexia, Diverse Learners, and Social Justice