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Have you ever experienced that reading a book can change your perception of someone you know?

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Or that it leads you to see your own experiences in a different light?

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Whether this sounds familiar or not, the potential is there.

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We have empirical evidence to support the claim that reading fiction can really change your life,

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in a process I call <i>transformative reading</i>. 

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Since the early philosophers Aristotle and Plato, many have argued that art affects emotions.

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In Plato's <i>Republic</i>, poets were to be banned from the ideal city.

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They were feared for their assumed power to satisfy and delight audiences' emotions, changing their perceptions.

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In <i>Poetics</i>, Aristotle describes how a tragedy can invoke fear and compassion,

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followed by a cleansing, a phenomenon called <i>catharsis</i>.

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So the power of literature to change perceptions of the self and of others has been discussed for thousands of years.

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Now, myself and colleagues within the new and vital field of empirical literary studies, have gathered evidence that Plato's fear was justified.

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Today, we can say that literature can change lives, and especially change your sense of self.

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We are supporting Aristotle's catharsis model, but it is only one among many models,

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as literature can bring about different forms of change in your life.

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Instead of focusing on aspects of the text, our interest lies with the reader's encounter with the text.

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So to understand the experience of transformative reading, I have developed a research methodology called LEX-NAP.

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It is a mixed methods procedure in which I use insights from linguistics, qualitative phenomenological methods, and quantitative methods.

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I ask participants to read specific short stories or texts of fiction, and conduct interviews about their experiences.

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I then code and categorize the different experiences.

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It is similar to a biologist's work.

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If you are investigating turtles, you are categorizing the different types of turtles to define species.

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In my research, I identify different types of transformative experiences.

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I also ask readers I interview to bring novels that have had a transformative impact on their lives.

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And after years of doing this, I have compiled a list of transformative fiction, 

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featuring both classics and contemporary fiction.

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These are some of the books readers have mentioned.

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But does literature always change the reader for the better? 

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We would like that to be true.

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Scientifically, we know that there is a change,

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but if it is a change for the better or for the worse, we cannot say yet.

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Both can be true.

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But what I can say so far, is that if you want to read something transformative, it has to be fiction, 

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and it has to be literary. 

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Reading the newspaper or non-fictional text is somehow not enough.

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Literature gives us the opportunity to revisit concepts of life

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and how we relate to others. 

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We have reasons to believe that other forms of art also have the same power,

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like looking at a painting, listening to music, or watching a movie.

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So far, I have distinguished two pathways by means of which reading literature might guide

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us in our insights into fictional and real selves. 

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The two pathways are what I call protagonist and mood-centered reading.

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In mood-centered reading, readers start engaging with the story mood.

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They talk about the setting or the imagery of the story. 

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Readers empathize with characters, but this is not central to their experience.

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Central to their experience is a form of tough love for the narrative,

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where readers might sympathize with the protagonist.

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But there can also be negative feelings, 

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either rejection or not accepting who the character is.

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And yet, there is positive evaluation of the narrative and the way it is written.

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The second pathway is centered on the protagonist. 

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In protagonist-centered reading, readers talk a lot about how the protagonist is different or similar to themselves.

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They revisit the ethical predicaments of the characters by connecting them to themselves or to people they know.

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Here, transformation occurs through a merging of boundaries between self and others,

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which means that readers take the characters' experiences as their own experiences.

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So readers say, I am this character,

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or this text is about my life.

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There is also compassion for characters,

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and then they reconsider how they will treat people who are similar to the protagonist. 

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So readers' subjective experiences are important in the transformative process.

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When we read stories, it is very typical that we revisit past memories.

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We understand what the characters go through by remembering similar situations from our past.

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In that way, you can reshape concepts about yourself and even choose to act differently.

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So far, myself and colleagues have shown that reading fiction affects our perceptions of ourselves and others.

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We have also demonstrated that it can have an impact on language awareness, 

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meaningful reading, and increasing motivation to read and to study literature.

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We also have preliminary findings that transformative reading might have a positive impact on empathy.

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In the 19th century, poet and critic Matthew Arnold argued that literature was a school for moral understanding.

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So I build on Arnold's insights when applying my research in the educational context.

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Several schools in Europe have been trying the pedagogical program on transformative reading. 

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There, we see that reading affects students' empathic capacities and moral reasoning.

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In the classes, we teach different aspects of the human mind.

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So we have a class about how to sympathize with characters.

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Another is about resonance and identification, for example.

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Here, at the University of Oslo, you can also follow classes on transformative reading, 

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both in literature and in psychology.

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I have also been carrying out reading workshops with business leaders,

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whom I believe can benefit a lot from reading fiction.

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So if you have never had a transformative experience, I can assure you that it is available for most people.

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I guide the reading, so you don't have to be an experienced reader.

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So after workshops, people who are not used to reading often ask me to recommend more books to read.

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And that is also a transformative experience in itself, 

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opening people's eyes to the joys of reading fiction.

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So I am pleased to see empirical studies of literature growing as a field. 

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We ask questions that emerge from literary studies,

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but we use methods from behavioral sciences, among others, to answer them.

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There are now scientific journals, courses, and networks 

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that allow scholars to build on these findings

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and come closer to scientific answers about transformative reading and how the human mind works.

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It is all about reflecting on the function literature can have in our lives

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and start understanding why we read literary fiction.