Anthem Studies in Bibliotherapy and Well-Being

Anthem Studies in Bibliotherapy and Well-Being offers a multi-dimensional model of literary thinking beyond the scope of medicalised interventions or self-help manuals and within the context of a radically new understanding of the uses of reading literature within the wider world. Testing the meaning and value of what is often called ‘bibliotherapy’, titles in the series span literary criticism, linguistics, philosophy, psychology, sociology, medicine and neuroscience. The series explores specific reading-acts but also proposes literary reading itself as a form of thinking more profound for mental well-being than automatic or literal processing.
 

Series Editor
Philip Davis – University of Liverpool, UK
 

Editorial Board
Richard Bentall – University of Sheffield, UK
Robert Douglas-Fairhurst – University of Oxford, UK
Chris Dowrick – University of Liverpool, UK
Arthur Jacobs – Free University of Berlin, Germany
Donald Kuiken – University of Alberta, Canada
Rick Rylance – University of London, UK
Neil Vickers – King’s College London, UK
Maryanne Wolf – Tufts University, USA
Adam Zeman – University of Exeter, UK
Arthur W. Frank – University of Calgary, Canada
 

Proposals
We welcome submissions of proposals for challenging and original works from emerging and established scholars that meet the criteria of our series. We make prompt editorial decisions. Our titles are published in print and e-book editions and are subject to peer review by recognized authorities in the field. Should you wish to send in a proposal for a monograph (mid-length and full-length), edited collection, handbook or companion, reference or course book, please contact us at: [email protected].

A Theory of Thrills, Sublime and Epiphany in Literature

A Theory of Thrills, Sublime and Epiphany in Literature

Nigel Fabb

A psychological explanation of goosebumps and tears, of the epiphanic experience of seeing something ordinary in a profoundly new way, and of the overwhelming perception of the sublime. These experiences found in life and literature involve a feeling of coming to know something deeply important but impossible to describe.

Paperback

9781839994159

December 2024

£ 25.00 / $ 35.00

Literature and Transformation

Literature and Transformation

A Narrative Study of Life-Changing Reading Experiences

Thor Magnus Tangerås

An inquiry into readers’ experiences of life-changing encounters with works of literature, the book uncovers the relationships between life-crises, being moved by literature and transformation of the self.

Paperback

9781839985393

April 2022

£ 25.00 / $ 40.00

Neurocomputational Poetics

Neurocomputational Poetics

How the Brain Processes Verbal Art

Arthur M. Jacobs

This book introduces a new thrilling field– neuro computational poetics, the scientific ‘marriage’ between cognitive poetics, data science and neuroscience – that aims at uncovering the secrets of verbal art reception.

Paperback

9781839996412

November 2025

£ 25.00 / $ 35.00

On Reading the History of Philosophy

On Reading the History of Philosophy

Daniel Whistler

An exploration of the value of the history of philosophy as a reading practice—that is, as a practice through which words from a philosophical past can give rise to wonder, can alienate, can lead to transformational breakthroughs or can animate a will to create anew.

Hardback

9781839988837

December 2027

£ 80.00 / $ 120.00

Reading as a Philosophical Practice

Reading as a Philosophical Practice

Robert Piercey

This book asks why reading matters so much to so many people. Its answer is that reading is a philosophical activity: a way of working through, and taking a stand on, fundamental questions about who and what we are, how we should live, and how we relate to other things.

Paperback

9781839985430

April 2022

£ 25.00 / $ 40.00

Reading to Stay Alive

Reading to Stay Alive

Tolstoy, Hopkins and the Dilemma of Existence

Christopher Dowrick

This book explores how literary reading can enable people considering suicide to stay alive. 

Paperback

9781839991813

March 2024

£ 19.99 / $ 24.95

Rethinking Therapeutic Reading

Rethinking Therapeutic Reading

Lessons from Seneca, Montaigne, Wordsworth and George Eliot

Kelda Green
Foreword by Michael Wood

Through a combination of literary criticism and experimental psychology, ‘Rethinking Therapeutic Reading’ reconsiders the role that serious literary reading might play in the real world, reclaiming literature as a vital tool for dealing with human troubles. 

Paperback

9781839985317

April 2022

£ 25.00 / $ 40.00

icon

icon

icon

icon

icon