Philip Davis

Reading between the lines: the experiences of taking part in a community reading project

Despite the popularity of reading groups, and the increased number of general-practitioner-referred bibliotherapy schemes in the UK, there has been relatively little research on the effects of reading works of literature on the well-being and health of readers. This paper reports the findings of a study set up to explore people’s experiences of taking part in community reading groups run by the Get into Reading Project in Wirral, Merseyside, UK. A qualitative approach was adopted, using three methods. These were participant observation with five reading groups, a key stakeholder interview and, with a sixth group, a single case study that consisted of observation and interviews with group members. The fieldwork conducted with the six groups took place in a variety of settings, including libraries, a residential drug rehabilitation unit and a hostel for homeless men. The research participants were all over 18 years of age, and all were members or facilitators of Get into Reading reading groups. The data were analysed thematically using NVivo qualitative analysis software. The findings show that the groups do not have a specific, targeted, therapeutic function, their primary purpose being more broadly literary, with literature itself trusted both to serve a coalescing social purpose and to offer non-specified but individual therapeutic benefits. Further work should be undertaken to explore the social and therapeutic benefits of reading literature in community settings.

How Shakespeare tempests the brain: Neuroimaging insights

Shakespeare made extensive use of the functional shift (FS), a rhetorical device involving a change in the grammatical status of words, e.g., using nouns as verbs. Previous work using event-related brain potentials showed how FS triggers a surprise effect inviting mental re-evaluation, seemingly independent of semantic processing. Here, we used functional magnetic resonance imaging to investigate brain activation in participants making judgements on the semantic relationship between sentences -some containing a Shakespearean FS- and subsequently presented words. Behavioural performance in the semantic decision task was high and unaffected by sentence type. However, neuroimaging results showed that sentences featuring FS elicited significant activation beyond regions classically activated by typical language tasks, including the left caudate nucleus, the right inferior frontal gyrus and the right inferior temporal gyrus. These findings show how Shakespeares grammatical exploration forces the listener to take a more active role in integrating the meaning of what is said.

A literature-based intervention for older people living with dementia

Background: While several studies have explored the impact of literature and reading on mental health, there has been relatively little work done on how a literature-based intervention might impact on the behaviours of those living with dementia. The present report addresses the effect that a specific literature-based intervention – Get into Reading, designed and practised by national charity The Reader Organisation – might have on the health and well-being of people living with dementia. Aims: This present study arises out of a service evaluation that specifically assessed to what extent the shared-reading intervention impacted upon behaviours symptomatic of dementia. Its aims were: (1) to understand the influence that reading has on older adults with dementia in different health-care environments; (2) to identify staff perceptions of the influence that engagement in a reading group has on older adults living with dementia; and (3) to investigate any changes in dementia symptoms of older adults participating in a reading group. Methods: The study employed a mixed-method design conducted within three health-care environments: three care homes, two hospital wards and one day centre. The Neuropsychiatric Inventory Questionnaire (NPI-Q) assessed staff views of any changes in dementia symptom severity for participants in reading groups conducted in the care homes. Semi-structured qualitative interviews were then conducted with staff who attended the reading groups and/or had extensive knowledge of service users involved in all of the health-care settings. Responses to questions were recorded verbatim and then subject to thematic analysis. Results: 61 service users and 20 staff members took part in the overall project. The NPI-Q results indicate that symptom scores were lower during the reading group period than at baseline. These findings were supported by the qualitative interviews, which suggested that three themes were perceived to be important to effective engagement with the reading groups: (1) the components of the reading group intervention; (2) enjoyment, authenticity, meaningfulness and renewed sense of personal identity; and (3) enhancement of listening, memory and attention. Conclusions: In light of quantifiable data of limited but indicative status, together with strongly corroborative qualitative evidence, engagement in reading-group activity appeared to produce a significant reduction in dementia symptom severity. Staff interviews indicated the contribution of reading groups to well-being.

Shared Reading: assessing the intrinsic value of a literature-based health intervention

Public health strategies have placed increasing emphasis on psychosocial and arts-based strategies for promoting well-being. This study presents preliminary findings for a specific literary-based intervention, Shared Reading, which provides community-based spaces in which individuals can relate with both literature and one another. A 12-week crossover design was conducted with 16 participants to compare benefits associated with six sessions of Shared Reading versus a comparison social activity, Built Environment workshops. Data collected included quantitative self-report measures of psychological well-being, as well as transcript analysis of session recordings and individual video-assisted interviews. Qualitative findings indicated five intrinsic benefits associated with Shared Reading: liveness, creative inarticulacy, the emotional, the personal and the group (or collective identity construction). Quantitative data additionally showed that the intervention is associated with enhancement of a sense of ‘Purpose in Life’. Limitations of the study included the small sample size and ceiling effects created by generally high levels of psychological well-being at baseline. The therapeutic potential of reading groups is discussed, including the distinction between instrumental and intrinsic value within arts-and-health interventions.

Syntax and pathways

Abstract A series of thought-experiments bring together literary criticism and neuroscience to explore the possibility that the shapes of mentality formed by literary language, in particular syntax, lock into, shift and modify established pathways of the brain. The two ordinarily strange bedfellows thus complement each other: literature offers the best model of relatively unprogrammed human thinking, that is to say, human thinking not tied to preconceived conceptual agendas; brain science in turn offers a means by which the inner reality of imaginative language may perhaps be persuasively visualised. Highly challenging though carefully chosen problems from the real world of literary studies provide good hope of determining whether neuroscience is worth the humanists candle – and whether that candle can illumine the neuroscientists research.

Why Victorian literature still matters

Introduction: The Victorian Bump and Where to Find It. 1. Victorian Hard Wiring. 2. Isaiah and Ezekiel - But What About Charley?. 3. Not So Straightforward: Realist Prose and What It Hides Within Itself. 4. A Literature In Time. 5. Individual Agents. 6. A Few of My Favorite Things: A Glove, a Sandal, and Plaited Hair. Notes. Index

Implicit and Explicit Reason: George Eliot and Shakespeare

In November 1877 the publisher Alexander Macmillan was trying to persuade George Eliot to write the life of Shakespeare for John Morley’s new English Men of Letters series. Although she finally declined the invitation, I want to argue that, imaginatively, George Eliot was the absolutely inspired choice for the task — even though Morley himself had earlier approached Matthew Arnold and John Seeley, who both declined. Herbert Spencer had called George Eliot the female Shakespeare. Alexander Main said that she had done for the Novel what Shakespeare did for the Drama. The very breadth of her sympathy was frequently described as Shakespearean.1

An evaluation of shared reading groups for adults living with dementia: preliminary findings

Purpose – Although there is a growing evidence base for the value of psychosocial and arts-based strategies for enhancing well-being amongst adults living with dementia, relatively little attention has been paid to literature-based interventions. The purpose of this paper is to assess the impact of shared reading (SR) groups, a programme developed and implemented by The Reader Organisation, on quality of life for care home residents with mild/moderate dementia. Design/methodology/approach – In total, 31 individuals were recruited from four care homes, which were randomly assigned to either reading-waiting groups (three months reading, followed by three months no reading) or waiting-reading groups (three months no reading, followed by three months reading). Quality of life was assessed by the DEMQOL-Proxy and psychopathological symptoms were assessed by the Neuropsychiatric Inventory Questionnaire. Findings – Compared to the waiting condition, the positive effects of SR on quality of life were demonstrated at the commencement of the reading groups and were maintained once the activity ended. Low levels of baseline symptoms prevented analyses on whether the intervention impacted on the clinical signs of dementia. Research limitations/implications – Limitations included the small sample and lack of control for confounding variables. Originality/value – The therapeutic potential of reading groups is discussed as a positive and practical intervention for older adults living with dementia.

The Very Grief a Cure of the Disease

Abstract This article uses Elizabethan poetics and the Renaissance sonnet as a template for understanding the power of reading as it is exhibited in modern-day mental health contexts, specifically in the work of national charity The Reader. Our concern is with the medicine of verbal beauty, representative expression and formal ordering towards perfection – in particular, the relation of ‘erected wit’ and ‘infected will’ in Sidney’s Defence of Poetry. We examine reading group transcripts produced as part of research projects on reading and mental health conducted by the Centre for Research into Reading, Literature and Society (CRILS) at the University of Liverpool (where the authors are based). We demonstrate how Elizabethan poetry, precisely by not offering a form of directive or targeted therapy, has the potential to help ease the suffering of those whose personal and existential problems are too often ignored by conventional therapies because ‘incurable’ as such.