Can books heal the mind Epiphanies An epiphany
Can books heal the mind?
Epiphanies • An epiphany in literature is an almost spiritual moment of consciousness, a little revelation in a character’s life that alters their perception of the world and gives them selfknowledge. • It happens to Laura after an argument with her mother in The Garden Party by Katherine Mansfield: ‘ “I don’t understand, ” said Laura, and she walked into her own bedroom. There quite by chance the first thing she saw was this charming girl in the mirror, in her black hat trimmed with gold daisies and a long black velvet ribbon. Never had she imagined she could look like that. ’ • Virginia Woolf called such experiences ‘moments of being’
Blake Morrison • Refers to in a seminal article ‘The Reading Cure’ : • i. Jane Davies’s work on Merseyside • ii. Plato • iii. George Eliot • iv. Wordsworth’s ‘spots of time’
The Lancet: The Art of Medicine – books do furnish the mind • Bate and Schuman give examples: • i. Montaigne after the death of his friend from the plague • ii. Aristotle • iii. Librarians in Psychiatric Hospitals during WW 1
Examples from Modern Writers • 1. Henning Mankell in Quicksand • 2. Jay Griffiths in Tristamania • 3. Shashi Deshpande - Indian Journal of Psychiatry
Reflexive research • Kim Etherington – Using ourselves in research • i. The Coral Island - Ballantyne • ii. Lines Written a Few Miles Above Tintern • Abbey - Wordsworth • iii. Victory - Conrad • iv. Duboetry - Levi Tafari
Adult Education • 1. Transformative experience - Tisdell • 2. Arvon poetry courses • 3. Teaching -The Detective in Fiction, The Short Story, Middlemarch
A Word of Warning! • Reading books… • should be banished from the ideal republic because they stirred up unhealthy emotions Plato • can cause dissatisfaction with reality and a stoking of the emotions – Beth Bartlett • can cause an overheated imagination, almost leading to disaster for Catherine Morland in Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen
Conclusions • Author, Sally Vickers, quotes findings that reading books improves our metal health • George Eliot: ‘Art is the nearest thing to life; it is a mode of amplifying experience and extending our contact with our fellow-men beyond the bounds of our personal lot. ’
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