What We Learn from Alice

Considerations on the Reading of Fiction

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.14393/LL63-v35n1a2019-4

Keywords:

Literature and learning, Cognitive literary studies, Alice in Wonderland, Lewis Carroll

Abstract

This article addresses the question of how the reading of fiction can be a learning experience for the reader – a kind of learning that is neither instructional nor should be confused with self-help. The hypothesis is that, in contact with “verbal art” (LOPES, 2012, p. 1), readers may broaden their mind (SPOLSKY, 2015a), acquire new knowledge (GREEN, 2010), and learn about emotions (KÜMMERLING-MEIBAUER, 2012; NIKOLAJEVA, 2014; SUIHKONEN, 2016). The argument is mainly based on recent cognitive literary studies, which approach mental processes that may emerge from the reading of fiction. Excerpts from Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Alice Through the Looking Glass and what she found there, by Lewis Carroll, in translation by Sebastião Uchoa Leite (1980), are theoretically examined in order to illustrate possible learning processes.

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Author Biography

Cynthia Beatrice Costa, Universidade Federal de Uberlândia

Graduada em Jornalismo pela Faculdade Cásper Líbero (2002). Mestre em Literatura e Crítica Literária pela Pontifícia Universidade Católica de São Paulo (2008). Doutora pelo Programa de Pós-Graduação em Estudos da Tradução da Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina (2016), com período sanduíche na Universidade de Yale. É professora adjunta do curso de Tradução da Universidade Federal de Uberlândia (UFU), além de atuar nos programas de pós-graduação em Estudos Literários da UFU e de Estudos da Tradução na Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina (PGET – UFSC).

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Published

2019-06-19

How to Cite

COSTA, C. B. What We Learn from Alice: Considerations on the Reading of Fiction. Letras & Letras, Uberlândia, v. 35, n. 1, p. 59–83, 2019. DOI: 10.14393/LL63-v35n1a2019-4. Disponível em: https://seer.ufu.br/index.php/letraseletras/article/view/47081. Acesso em: 22 jul. 2024.