Kroppen läser och skriver? Läsningens och skrivandets kroppslighet i ljuset av Merleau-Pontys kroppsfilosofi

Reading and writing have been investigated from different perspectives. Dependingon the perspective adopted, some aspects of the phenomena havebecome visible, while others have been ignored. One of these seldom highlightedaspects is the lived body, learning to read and write. In this article, Iexplore the phenomenological aspects of reading and writing. What do we seewhen we consider our embodied existence? Merleau-Ponty believes that manis an indivisible whole; the mind can neither be understood without the body,nor the body without the mind. What then are the consequences for our understandingof reading and writing when, in addition to aspects of skill, metacognitionand learning in practice, account is also taken of the fact that we arelived bodies, situated in time and space? The findings from my doctorial thesis(Nielsen, 2005) serve to illustrate the discussion. Narratives from people withreading and writing difficulties show that the encounters with sign, words andtext are a bodily encounter, as well as a mental one, facilitated by means ofperception and motor activity. They also show that own time and personalspace are important aspects of learning to read and write