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In recent years, a growing field of empathy studies has started to
emerge from several academic disciplines, including neuroscience,
social psychology, and philosophy. Because literature plays a
central role in discussions of empathy across disciplines,
reconsidering how literature relates to "feeling with" others is
key to rethinking empathy conceptually. This collection challenges
common understandings of empathy, asking readers to question what
it is, how it works, and who is capable of performing it. The
authors reveal the exciting research on empathy that is currently
emerging from literary studies while also making productive
connections to other areas of study such as psychology and
neurobiology. While literature has been central to discussions of
empathy in divergent disciplines, the ways in which literature is
often thought to relate to empathy can be simplistic and/or
problematic. The basic yet popular postulation that reading
literature necessarily produces empathy and pro-social moral
behavior greatly underestimates the complexity of reading,
literature, empathy, morality, and society. Even if empathy were a
simple neurological process, we would still have to differentiate
the many possible kinds of empathy in relation to different forms
of art. All the complexities of literary and cultural studies have
still to be brought to bear to truly understand the dynamics of
literature and empathy.
In recent years, a growing field of empathy studies has started to
emerge from several academic disciplines, including neuroscience,
social psychology, and philosophy. Because literature plays a
central role in discussions of empathy across disciplines,
reconsidering how literature relates to "feeling with" others is
key to rethinking empathy conceptually. This collection challenges
common understandings of empathy, asking readers to question what
it is, how it works, and who is capable of performing it. The
authors reveal the exciting research on empathy that is currently
emerging from literary studies while also making productive
connections to other areas of study such as psychology and
neurobiology. While literature has been central to discussions of
empathy in divergent disciplines, the ways in which literature is
often thought to relate to empathy can be simplistic and/or
problematic. The basic yet popular postulation that reading
literature necessarily produces empathy and pro-social moral
behavior greatly underestimates the complexity of reading,
literature, empathy, morality, and society. Even if empathy were a
simple neurological process, we would still have to differentiate
the many possible kinds of empathy in relation to different forms
of art. All the complexities of literary and cultural studies have
still to be brought to bear to truly understand the dynamics of
literature and empathy.
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