Reading Literature and Chronic Pain

Dr Josie Billington (University of Liverpool, UK)

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Paperback

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English

Bloomsbury Academic
10 July 2025

This valuable and insightful study into chronic pain and its treatment advances a striking analysis of the complex phenomenon of chronic pain, also attesting to the importance of the medical humanities in addressing urgent questions that medical science alone cannot resolve.

The primary purpose of this book is twofold. First, to demonstrate empirically – against a conceptual background drawn from multiple disciplines and knowledge bases (historical, medical, neurobiological, psychological, socio/anthropological) – how an apparently ‘soft’ intervention such as literary reading can effectively combat symptoms of a condition as intractable as chronic pain. Second, to explore what this evidence tells us about pain (as a lived experience as well as a condition in urgent need of new treatment options) and about literature and the reading of fiction and poetry as therapeutic influences in contemporary health and healthcare, most particularly in alleviating the (often severe) mental health difficulties with which chronic pain is almost universally associated.

Based on unique empirical research with people who are living with chronic pain, this book is the first of its kind to demonstrate the value of literature and literary reading both as a discourse for understanding and 'finding' pain and as an intervention in its treatment.

By: Dr Josie Billington (University of Liverpool UK)
Imprint: Bloomsbury Academic
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 232mm, Width: 154mm, Spine: 18mm
Weight: 400g
ISBN: 9781350270251
ISBN 10: 1350270253
Pages: 256
Publication Date: 10 July 2025
Audience: College/higher education , Professional and scholarly , Primary , Undergraduate
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Forthcoming

Josie Billington is Professor in English Literature at the University of Liverpool, UK. She has edited and published extensively on Victorian women's fiction and poetry including 21st Century Oxford Authors: Elizabeth Barrett Browning, George Eliot's Scenes of Clerical Life, Elizabeth Gaskell's Wives and Daughters, and Margaret Oliphant's The Ladies Lindores. She has also led multiple inter-disciplinary studies on the value of literary reading for health. Her publications in this field include Is Literature Healthy? (Oxford University Press, 2016) and Reading and Mental Health (Palgrave, 2019).

Reviews for Reading Literature and Chronic Pain

This is an accomplished book on an important and pressing topic, advancing a striking analysis of the complex phenomenon of chronic pain. It also attests to the importance of the medical humanities in addressing urgent questions that medical science alone cannot resolve. -- Ulrika Maude, Professor of Modern Literature and Director of the Centre for Health, Humanities and Science, University of Bristol, UK An exciting new contemplative-style approach to treating chronic pain—and much more. This book is rooted in empirical research and breaks new ground in areas of embodiment and group development, exploring the power of reading great literature aloud—both fiction and poetry—to bring readers together to a place of healing. -- Donald McCown, Professor of Public Health Sciences and Director of the Center for Contemplative Studies, West Chester University of Pennsylvania, USA