Just how transformative is literature for our students?

Gordon Cairns

By Gordon Cairns
Community contribution / October 4, 2021

An English judge has sentenced a right-wing extremist to reading classic literature rather than serving his full jail time, in the belief that the words of Dickens, Austen, Shakespeare, Trollope and Hardy will turn a potential terrorist into an upstanding member of society.

While literature can be transformative, not only does the reader have to want to change to be inspired by the written word, but the situation also has to be right.

Ben John from Lincoln in England, who downloaded almost 70,000 white supremacist documents and bomb-making instructions, has to return ...

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