Highlighting efforts to address today’s most pressing social challenges through the study of texts in languages other than English.

Literature for Change examines how the study, production, circulation, and reception of literary texts in languages other than English contribute to addressing contemporary social challenges. Through eleven case studies across diverse languages and cultures, it analyzes the real-world impact of literary research, showing its relevance to sectors such as museums and heritage, the environmental and medical humanities, and the digital sphere. Combining hermeneutic and aesthetic approaches, the chapters demonstrate the value of varied methods, including theoretically grounded creative inquiry, and the connections between literary studies and other disciplines. The book affirms the importance of the field of modern languages and the continuing role of literary texts in shaping social and cultural life.

Charles Burdett is professor of Italian and director of the Institute of Languages, Cultures and Societies at the School of Advanced Study, University of London. Joseph Ford is a senior lecturer in French studies at the Institute of Languages, Cultures and Societies at the School of Advanced Study, University of London. Godela Weiss-Sussex is professor of modern German literature at the Institute of Languages, Cultures and Societies at the School of Advanced Study, University of London, and codirector of the Centre for the Study of Contemporary Women’s Writing. Naomi Wells is a senior lecturer in Italian and Spanish with digital humanities at the Institute of Languages, Cultures and Societies and the Digital Humanities Research Hub at the School of Advanced Study, University of London. She is also joint editor of digital modern languages for Modern Languages Open.

• Introduction
  Charles Burdett, Joseph Ford, Godela Weiss-Sussex and Naomi Wells

• 1 Ancient tales for troubled times: exploring cross-cultural encounters through storytelling and the visual arts
  Rachel Scott

• 2 Modern medieval languages: reading in and out of time
  Sarah Bowden

• 3 Spanish feminist networks: stories for today
  Nuria Capdevila-Arguelles

• 4 Using the past to save our future: modern languages and the heritage industry
  Carol Tully

• 5 Towards sustainable practices in the ‘post-museum’? post-object lessons from contemporary world literature
  Emma Bond

• 6 Place and planet: literary research in an age of ‘global challenges’
  Nicola Thomas

• 7 Literary studies and decolonial praxis
  Emanuelle Santos

• 8 Hungry for words: what literary research can do for the understanding of mental illness
  Heike Bartel

• 9 Reality, representation, resistance: a case study of an Arab cancer ethnodrama
  Abir Hamdar

• 10 Expanding horizons: reconsidering literary studies in the digital age
  Reham Hosny

• 11 Poetry versus Putin: challenging Russian myths of masculinity
  Connor Doak