Den talande bokens poetik - Doria

9 Summary
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Introduction and aim of the study
This dissertation is about young adults with a reading handicap due to mild
mental retardation and their possibilities to read, enjoy and learn from fiction
through listening to a talking book.
In the research project literature is regarded as a life subject. This opinion is
based on, for instance, Judith Langer’s (1995) writings about literary
understanding and literature instruction. She claims (1995, 5) that literature
plays a critical role in the lives of human beings because literature sets the scene
for readers to explore both themselves and others, to define and redefine who
they are, who they might become and how the world might be. The Swedish
professor of special education, Mats Myrberg (2005), also claims that the value
of reading fiction is that people can exchange stories with each other and thus
become involved in each other’s lives, in the thoughts and experiences of others.
Langer says (1995, 5) that “all literature - the stories that we read, as well as
those we tell - provides us with a way to imagine human potential. In its best
sense, literature is intellectually provocative as well as humanizing”, and Langer
means that the reader (or listener) can benefit from literature in many ways, both
personally, socially and intellectually. Myrberg (2007) states that the narrative
way of reading, which is required when you read fiction, demands good reading
ability and endurance because the reader has to interpret large amounts of text.
Reading fiction fluently also demands a well developed vocabulary, knowledge
about the surrounding world and the ability to imagine, to create
“envisionments”.
A preunderstanding in the research project The poetics of the talking book was
that young adults with the function disability of mild mental retardation do not
read fiction due to poor reading skills. They usually do not read fluently and
both their lexicology and vocabulary is underdeveloped. That means that they
also are deprived of the affordances (Gibson 1979, 127–143) to develop literary
understanding and thus, as stated above, - to be able to explore both themselves
and others. One of the aims of the research project reported in this dissertation
was therefore to explore how talking books could be used as a way for young
adults with mild mental retardation to read fiction.
Chapter 1 gives the background of the research interest and presents the research
questions.
The research was carried out in the Swedish-speaking area in Finland and the
research interest was to explore the talking book produced to meet the needs of
especially Finland-Swedish speaking young adults with the function disability
named above. Studio Finlandssvenska Röster, FsR (“Studio Finland-Swedish
Voices”, my translation), and its founder Östen Engström played an important
role in carrying out the empirical part of the research project. Studio FsR