Päivi Kosonen profile picture
Päivi
Kosonen
University Teacher, Literary Studies and Creative Writing
University Lecturer, Literary Studies and Creative Writing
PhD
SELMA, Centre for the Study of Storytelling, Experientality and Memory; Counter-Narratives of Cancer. Shaping Narrative Agency. (Research Council of Finland, 2023-27, PI Hanna Meretoja)

Areas of expertise

Life Writing & Autobiography Studies
Biblio/Poetry Therapy
French Literature

Biography

PhD, senior researcher of comparative literature (School of History, Culture and Arts Studies), and trained biblio/poetry therapist and bibliotherapeutic educator.

Member of SELMA (Centre for the Study of Storytelling, Experientiality and Memory) and part of the Turku-based team in the Academy of Finland consortium (2018–2022) Instrumental Narratives: The Limits of Storytelling and New Story-Critical Narrative Theory.

Current Research Project Counter-Narratives of Cancer. Shaping Narrative Agency (Research Council of Finland, former Academy of Finland) 2023-2027. 

Teaching

Bibliotherapy, autobiographical literature

Research

I have studied autobiographical literature and the genre history of the autobiography from antiquity and the Middle Ages to the modern and late modern era. As a bibliotherapist, my work focuses on therapeutic writing and therapeutic reading. In addition to my individual  clients, I host bibliotherapeutic developmental groups in different communal settings. I am also interested in the theoretical aspects related to bibliotherapy, and I am keenly interested in constructing a more delicate and critical bibliotherapeutic reading method that can be applied on a more general basis in health and care-related work. My most recent publications in this area include “Creative Autobiography. From Self-knowledge to the Teaching of Writing” (2015) and “Towards Therapeutic Reading. Part I: Identity Work: Growth and Development through Reading” (2018). 

Publications

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