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Empathy and the Strangeness of Fiction

Readings in French Realism

Maria C Scott author

Format:Paperback

Publisher:Edinburgh University Press

Published:3rd Mar '22

Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back

Empathy and the Strangeness of Fiction cover

This book takes its point of departure in recent psychological findings which suggest that reading fiction cultivates empathy, including Theory of Mind. Scott draws on literary theory and close readings to argue that engagement with fictional stories also teaches us to resist uncritical forms of empathy and reminds us of the limitations of our ability to understand other people. The book treats figures of the stranger in Balzac's La Fille aux yeux d'or, Stendhal's Le Rouge et le Noir and Sand's Indiana as emblematic of the strangeness of narrative fiction, which both draws us in and keeps us at a distance.

ISBN: 9781474463041

Dimensions: unknown

Weight: unknown

240 pages