| dc.description.abstract | There is a tendency in modern education to favour the measurable above abstract knowledge.
This also applies to the teaching of literature, which is complicated as the aesthetic value of
reading is not blatantly visible in tests or exams. As literature teaching becomes more
instrumental and fragmented, there is a risk that the pleasure of reading gets squandered in the
process. In this literature review, the possibilities of literature teaching in modern research are
examined in relation to two key aspects: the pleasure or desire to read and the reading
experience. This is defined as the state of being immersed in a text via thoughts, feelings, and
reactions experienced by the reader. The research material consisting of dissertations, articles,
and books was selected through an explorative literature study. Two research questions
examine:
1) What aspects of reading experiences can be found in modern research.
2) What aspects of the value of literature can be found in modern research.
First, the different perspectives of the reading experience are examined. Themes such as the
use of pleasure, reader identification, the framework set by the curriculum and syllabus, and
the reading experience as the solution to a teaching caught in the middle of dichotomies are
discussed. Secondly, we examine how the value of literature is presented in research, both
implicitly and explicitly, and how students and teachers legitimize reading literature. The
results exhibit the reading experience as both the solution to a literature teaching torn between
dichotomies and the value of literature. We concluded that by allowing the more pleasurable
sides of reading to enter the classroom, students are encouraged and motivated to experience
literature in new ways. This could transform the teaching of literature and prove to be a
solution to the challenge of balancing measurable knowledge and the inclusion of the
unmeasurable that may be even more critical in its complexity. | en_US |
