What can literature do for the reader?
Good books can do so
much for children. At their best, they expand horizons and instil in children a
sense of the wonderful complexity of life... No other pastime available to
children is so conducive to empathy and the enlargement of human sympathies. No
other pleasure can so richly furnish a child's mind with the symbols, patterns,
depths and possibilities of civilisation. (Landsberg 1987 p.34)
Reflecting on what literature can do for the reader D.W. Harding
wrote: 'we can release
our imaginings from practical limitations and consider what might have been and
what might be' (Harding, 1974:61). And Margaret Meek (1988) points out that texts 'can offer the reader the chance to discover
fictions as the focus of contemplation of possibilities: what life might be
like'. This reminds us that reading and responding to literature will always be
more than the sum of the parts. While it is important that pupils can talk
confidently about the point of view from which a story is told, or compare the
structure of different stories, or understand how paragraphs and chapters are
used, this is to no avail if they are not moved, excited, delighted, challenged
or changed by what they read.
Activity
In coming to understand what
literature can do for the reader, student teachers might be asked to revisit
their reading histories and to identify a book that has had a significant
impact on them - that has in some way led to personal growth.
They might share these special
books in small groups and then brainstorm a list of purposes and pleasures that
can be derived from reading literature.
They might than compare their ideas
with those outlined by theorists such as Lukens or Nodelman (see below).
Literature brings together 'thinking' in both the cognitive and
affective domains. So responses can be emotional and/or intellectual. Rebecca
Lukens (1999) writes that literature elicits both pleasure and understanding
and identifies a range of benefits to the reader. Literature, she writes, shows
human motives; provides form for experience; reveals life's fragmentation;
helps us focus on essentials; reveals the institutions of society; reveals
nature as a force and provides vicarious experience. Nodelman's list of the
pleasures of children's literature is extensive and includes items such as 'the
pleasure of gaining insight into history and culture', 'the pleasure of
experiencing something new', or 'the pleasure of repeating a familiar and
comfortable experience'. The importance of a personal response is acknowledged
and implied in the Primary Framework which indicates that children should
relate reading to their own experiences, discuss and justify preferences or
articulate a personal response. Though there are more frequent references to
personal response at KS1 and lower KS2 this continues to be an essential
starting point for talking about reading for children of all ages.
Having
considered personal pleasures of reading, student teachers might then
investigate the pleasure that different children describe when talking about
their reading. Francis Spufford's (2002) The
Child That Books Built and Daniel Pennac's (1994) Reads Like a Novel provide illuminating accounts of the effect of
childhood reading on the shaping of the individual.
Activity
Student teachers might read and
talk about Spufford's or Pennac's books or discuss extracts from them,
comparing the writers' experiences with their own as young readers.
If the books or extracts from them
aren't available, the student teachers can be asked to recall their own
childhood reading experiences:
Do they remember being completely
absorbed in a book? What places, people, sounds and smells do they associate
with the sensation. Alternatively, do they recall, as Pennac indicates, a time
when they were 'made' to read against their will. What made this reading unpalatable?
You might use these reminiscences
to emphasise the fact that even though reading is often seen as a solitary
activity, it can also be a deeply social experience, often linking us to others
through the shared experience of reading, hearing or talking about books. The group might also consider how they could approach
reading with children who seem to be reluctant to read.
