Empathy and literary reading: the case of Fräulein Else’s interior monologue

Elisabetha Vinci

doi:10.25185/6.5

Authors

Elisabetha Vinci Università degli Studi di Catania, Italia https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2680-3832

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.25185/6.5

Keywords:

Empathy, Literature, Reading, Fictional characters, Interior monologue

Abstract

This contribution is aimed at analyzing how empathy is instantiated when we read works of fiction and at studying which elements can improve the consonance between characters and readers. Starting from a brief summary about empathy with regard to literary texts, the paper examines the question concerning human reception of fictional characters in order to investigate how we empathize with them through the description of some elements which foster empathy: internal focalization, interior monologue and movement description. Fräulein Else by Arthur Schnitzler will serve as case study of empathic reading.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

References

Abramo, Federica, Renata Gambino and Grazia Pulvirenti. “Cognitive literary Anthropology and Neurohermeneutics”. Enthymema XVIII (2017): 44-62.

Bal, Mieke. Narratology: Introduction to the Theory of Narrative. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1985/1997.

Berta, Luca. “Narrazione e neuroni specchio”. In Neuronarratologia. Il futuro dell’analisi, edited by Stefano Calabrese, 187-203. Bologna: Archetipo Libri, 2009.

Cohn, Dorrit. Transparent Minds: Narrative Modes for presenting Consciousness in Fiction. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1978.

Damasio, Antonio. Descartes’ Error: Emotion, Reason, and the Human Brain. New York: G.P Putnam, 1994.

Damasio, Antonio. The Feeling of what happens. Body and Emotion in the Making of Consciousness. Wilmington: Mariner books, 2000.

Fahra, Martha J. “The Neural Bases of Mental Imagery”. Trends in Neuroscience 12, (1989): 395-399.

Fogliani, Teresa. Empatia ed emozioni. Catania: C.U.E.C.M., 2003.

Gallese, Vittorio. “The ‘shared manifold’ Hypothesis: From Mirror Neurons to Empathy”. J Consc Stud, 8 (2001): 33-50.

Gallese, Vittorio. “The Roots of Empathy: The Shared Manifold Hypothesis and the Neural Basis of Intersubjectivity”. Psychopathology, 36 (2003): 171-180.

Gallese, Vittorio. “Dai neuroni specchio alla consonanza intenzionale. Meccanismi neurofisiologici dell’intersoggettività”. Rivista di Psicoanalisi LIII (2007): 197-208.

Gallese, Vittorio and Hannah Wojciehowski. “How Stories Make Us Feel: Toward an Embodied Narratology”. California Italian Studies 2.1 (2001), http://escholarship.org/uc/item/3jg726c2

Gambino, Renata and Grazia Pulvirenti. Storie Menti Mondi. Approccio neuroermeneutico alla letteratura. Milano: Mimesis, 2018.

Genette, Gérard. Figure III. Discorso del racconto. Torino: Einaudi, 1976.

Genette, Gérard. Narrative Discourse Revisited. Ithaca: Cornell UP, 1988.

Herder, Johann Gottfried. Vom Erkennen und Empfinden der menschlichen Seele. Bemerkungen und Träume. Riga: Hartknoch, 1778.

Herman, David. Narratologies: New Perspectives on Narrative Analysis. Columbus: Ohio State University Press, 1999.

Hauk Olaf, Ingrid, Johnsrude Ingrid and Friedermann Pulvermüller. “Somatopic representation of action words in human motor and premotor cortex”. Neuron, 41, (2004): 301-307.

Iacoboni, Marco. I neuroni specchio. Come capiamo ciò che fanno gli altri. Torino: Bollati Boringhieri, 2008.

Iser, Wolfgang. The Act of Reading: A Theory of Aesthetic Response. London: John Hopkins University Press, 1978.

Jahn, Manfred. “Windows of Focalization: Deconstructing and Reconstructing a Narratological Concept”. Style 30, nº 2 (1996), 241-267.

Jahn, Manfred. “More Aspect of Focalization: Refinements and Applications”. Revue des Groupes de Recherchers Anglo-Américaines de l’Université François Rabelais de Tour 21 ed. J. Pier (1999): 85-110.

Jesch, Tatjana and Malte Stein. “Perspectivization and Focalization: Two Concepts - One Meaning? An Attempt at Conceptual Differentiation”. In Point of view, Perspectve, and Focalization, edited by P. Hühn, W. Schmidt, J. Schönert, 59-77. Berlin: de Gruyter, 2009.

Kosslyn, Stephen M. and L. Thompson William. “Shared Mechanisms, Visual Imagery and Visual Perception: Insights from Cognitive Science”. In The Cognitive Neurosciences, edited by Michael S. Gazzaniga, 975-985. Cambridge: MIT Press, 2000.

Kuzmičová, Anežka. “Presence in the Reading of Literary Narrative: A Case for Motor Enactment”. Semiotica 189 (2012): 23-48.

Lubbok, Percy. The Craft of Fiction. London: Jonathan Cape, 1921.

Mar, Raymond A. and Oatley Keith. “Emotion and narrative fiction: Interactive influences before, during, and after reading”. Cognition & Emotions 25, nº 5 (2011): 818-833, 824.

Margolin, Uri. “Focalization: Where Do We Go from Here?”, in Point of view, Perspectve, and Focalization edited by P. Hühn, W. Schmidt, J. Schönert, 41-58. Berlin: de Gruyter, 2009.

Palmer, Alan. “Storyworlds and Groups”. In Introduction to Cognitive Cultural Studies, edited by Lisa Zunshine, 176-192. Baltimora: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2010.

Schleiermacher, Friedrich. “Hermeneutik und Kritik”, in Id., Sämmtliche Werke. Berlin: Reimer, 1838.

Schnitzler, Arthur. Leutenant Gustl. Berlin: Fischer, 1901.

Schnitzler, Arthur. Fräulein Else. London: A.M. Philpot, 1925.

Uboldi, Sara. Neuronarratologia della finzione. Dal paleolitico al globale. Pavia: Altravista, 2018.

Zwaan, Rolf A. and Lawrence J. Taylor. “Seeing, Acting, Understanding: Motor Resonance in Language Comprehension”. Journal of Experimental Psychology 135, nº 1 (2006): 1-11.

Zweig, Stefan. Twenty-four hours in the Life of a Woman. London: Pushkin Press, 2011.