D. Miall, Literary Reading: Empirical And Theoretical Studies

MIALL, David S., Literary Reading: Empirical And Theoretical Studies, Peter Lang, New York, Bern, Berlin, Bruxelles, Frankfurt am Main, Oxford, Wien, 2006. 234 pp.

ISBN : 0-8204-8647-7

Book Description :
This is the first major book in English on literary reading to be based on empirical methods. Moving the focus away from interpretation to the experience of literary texts, these studies demonstrate the role played by feeling in readers’ responses, showing how feeling performs important functions during reading that cannot be accounted for by cognitive understanding. These studies not only reinvigorate the concept of literariness, they are also thoroughly interdisciplinary, offering a coherent approach to literary reading that draws on literary theory, psychology, neuropsychology, and evolutionary psychology. Several chapters help to introduce the empirical approach for students.

About the Author:
David S. Miall is Professor of English at the University of Alberta. He received his Ph.D. in English literature from the University of Wales in 1980. His previous publications include two edited volumes, Humanities and the Computer: New Directions (1990) and Romanticism: The CD-ROM (1997). He has published numerous articles on literature of the British Romantic period and on the empirical study of literary reading.