Literature and legends

This chapter provides a summary of some 30 years work on developing access to literature for people who find it hard to read or to follow a complex written text. It defines literature broadly as any text of cultural significance: novels, plays, poetry and non-fiction genres such as biography or essays. The basic principles relate to how people understand literature, partial participation, the nature of language and cultural access. Literature is not the same as literacy. Canonical literary theory maintained that the meaning of a text resided literally in the words on the page; a moment’s reflection is enough to falsify this premise. The term was coined by Baumgart and colleagues. Books remain hugely popular. Book groups and clubs, literary events and festivals have all mushroomed. Festival communities in Scotland are now beginning to actively include multi-sensory storytelling into their standard festival programmes.