Literary Studies and Human Flourishing

More about the book

Literary studies stand out as a discipline often resistant to positive psychology and the mainstream discourse on human flourishing. This collection of essays does not shy away from this tension; instead, it seeks to explore how the contributors' literary research can engage in an interdisciplinary dialogue about human flourishing. The authors cover diverse fields, including literary aesthetics, book history, digital humanities, and reader reception, alongside critical inter-disciplines such as gender and sexuality studies, disability studies, and black studies. These areas highlight issues of stigma and exclusion, critiquing the prevailing discourse for its neglect of structural inequality and human diversity. Collectively, the essays introduce more questions and complexities regarding human flourishing than clear solutions. Literary scholars often gravitate towards the problematic rather than the definitive. By focusing on these challenging aspects within a field predominantly rooted in the sciences, this volume lays the foundation for innovative forms of interdisciplinary collaboration and exchange.