Књижевна клиника: Тумачење и/или употреба књижевних текстова у библиотерапији

Abstract

The paper employs Umberto Eco’s dichotomy interpretation/use to examine different reading experiences and strategies. Eco’s dichotomy is suitable for the aim of this paper to demonstrate that the idea of bibliotherapy as a practice of using literary texts according to a predetermined path and with specific objectives owes to arbitrary readings of Samuel McChord Crothers’s essay “A Literary Clinic” (1916). In this essay, Crothers uses a dialogue between the narrator and his friend Bagster to address contemporary debates on the habits and purposes of reading. The gradual unveiling of the narrative strategy tends to illustrate that Bagster’s model represents a limited form of reading (using literary texts).