Sensitivity Reading or Kokemuslukeminen as an Ethical-Aesthetic Intervention in Finnish Youth Literature

Sensitivity reading is a specialized editorial practice focused on better representation of historically marginalized groups in literature. While the practice originates from 2010s children’s and young adult literature publishing in the United States, it has since also been employed elsewhere around the world. This article focuses on kokemuslukeminen (“lived experience reading”) – sensitivity reading in the context of Finnish youth literature – as a localized version of a more international practice. Drawing on interviews with three sensitivity readers in Finland, it aims to provide new insight into the practice by broadening the understanding of it beyond the dominant Anglo-American perspective through an analysis of sensitivity readers’ accounts in this specific context and in dialogue with relevant feminist discussions. Situating the practice locally, for example in relation to questions of genre and institutional realities, while also acknowledging its roots in long-standing theoretical and political traditions, provides valuable insight into the practice as well as important tools for both its defense and the critique. Indeed, in order to seriously engage with sensitivity reading as a practice, we must acknowledge not only its possibilities but also its ideological and institutional limitations.