Staying alive: conversations about literature and suicide Pay as you can

What makes life feel worth living, especially when it feels impossible to go on? Recent research into suicide prevention suggests that media reports about people who have considered suicide, but chosen to go on living, can inspire others to make the same choice.

Named ‘the Papageno effect', after the bird-catcher in Mozart's Magic Flute, who is dissuaded from taking his own life by three boys who help him find ways to cope, this phenomenon shows the importance of both community and storytelling in suicide prevention.

In this event, facilitated by Dr Katie Jones, Head of the Comparative Literature Programme and Lecturer in Comparative Literature and French in the School of Modern Languages, we will consider the specific role of literature through conversations with writers and charity representatives.