Projet ELIT (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2019)
Action : Doctoral Networks - Joint Doctorates
Panel : Social Sciences and Humanities
Statut du projet : SIGNED

In Europe one in five people lacks adequate reading skills. Additionally, research shows that the amount of time spend reading is in decline and becoming more intermittent and fragmented. This is alarming, since recent empirical research shows that literary reading, by virtue of its appeal to first-person experience, yields unique cognitive and emotional benefits, such as enhancing the capacity for empathy, social inference, and emotional self-regulation. To arrive at a deeper understanding of how reading literature can lead to positive societal effects, more fundamental research is needed first. We need to clarify the (neuro)-cognitive processes that are crucial to literary reading in theoretical models. Model development should go hand in hand with the elaboration of novel empirical methods to test them. In addition, we need to investigate forms of narrative engagement and types of literary texts in which empathy plays an important role. Narrative engagement is an important contributor to reading enjoyment. Once these processes and literary experiences are mapped out, we can explore the effects of literary reading on mental well-being. To answer these questions, we propose to set up an ETN that aims to train a new generation of innovative and interdisciplinary researchers in the empirical study of literature: The Empirical Study of Literature Training Network (ELIT). As there are currently no interdisciplinary doctoral programs available across Europe, we developed a new program that revolves around comprehensive and integrative training that emphasizes the multidimensionality of reading. ELIT will stimulate true interdisciplinary research: our doctoral candidates will combine theory-driven approaches with various empirical methods. We will be collaborating closely with a range of non-academic partners to draw in valuable insights about how reading can fulfil certain societal needs.

Mots clés : interdisciplinarity, empirical study of literature, empathy, narrative engagement, literature and, wellbeing, text analysis, shared reading

Participants :
- University of Haifa (Israël) — Partner, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 112207.48 €
- University of Trnava (Slovaquie) — Partner, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 233246.88 €
- University of Stavanger (Norvège) — Partner, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 292342.32 €
- University of Warsaw (Pologne) — Partner, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 227478.6 €
- Freie Universität Berlin (Allemagne) — Partner, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 252788.4 €
- University of Verona (Italie) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 472152.2 €
- University of Basel (Suisse) — Partner, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 281276.64 €
- Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (Pays-Bas) — Partner, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 265619.88 €
- Radboud University Nijmegen (Pays-Bas) — Partner, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 147566.6 €
- University of Vienna (Autriche) — Partner, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 264207.24 €