In Denham, A. (2020). Making Sorrow Sweet: Emotion and Empathy in the Experience of Fiction. In A. Houen (Ed.), Affect and Literature (Cambridge Critical Concepts, pp. 190-210). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/9781108339339.011. Cambridge, UK: pp. 190-210 (2020)
Authors |
|
Abstract |
The nature and consequences of readers’ affective engagement with literature has, in recent years, captured the attention of experimental psychologists and philosophers alike. Psychological studies have focused principally on the causal mechanisms explaining our affective interactions with fictions, prescinding from questions concerning their rational justifiability. Transportation Theory, for instance, has sought to map out the mechanisms the reader tracks the narrative experientially, mirroring its descriptions through first-personal perceptual imaginings, affective and motor responses and even evaluative beliefs. Analytical philosophers, by contrast, have largely focussed on the problems fiction poses for traditional theories of rationality (as in the ‘Paradox of Fiction), challenging fiction’s wider epistemic value. The result has been a theoretical impasse in which the power of fiction to affectively ‘transport’ a reader is at once often lauded (by psychologists) as a privileged route to interpersonal understanding, and condemned (by philosophers) as an abdication of the authority of reason. This chapter surveys some of the central claims on both sides, tracing the source of the debate to competing conceptions of rationality.
|
Keywords | No keywords specified (fix it) |
Categories | (categorize this paper) |
Buy the book |
Find it on Amazon.com
|
Options |
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
Download options
References found in this work BETA
How Can We Be Moved by the Fate of Anna Karenina.Colin Radford & Michael Weston - 1975 - Aristotelian Society Supplementary Volume 49 (1):67 - 93.
Fiction: Simulation of Social Worlds.Keith Oatley - 2016 - Trends in Cognitive Sciences 20 (8):618-628.
Emotion and Narrative Fiction: Interactive Influences Before, During, and After Reading.Raymond A. Mar, Keith Oatley, Maja Djikic & Justin Mullin - 2011 - Cognition and Emotion 25 (5):818-833.
View all 6 references / Add more references
Citations of this work BETA
No citations found.
Similar books and articles
Literature and Rationality: Ideas of Agency in Theory and Fiction Paisley Livingston Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991, X + 256 Pp., US$49.95. [REVIEW]Roger Seamon - 1994 - Dialogue 33 (4):773.
Book Reviews : Paisley Livingston, Literature and Rationality: Ideas of Agency in Theory and Fiction. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991. Pp. X, 296. $49.95 (Cloth. [REVIEW]Richard Reiner - 1994 - Philosophy of the Social Sciences 24 (4):519-522.
Virgil's Eclogues Between Fact and Fiction. Kania Virgil's Eclogues and the Art of Fiction. A Study of the Poetic Imagination. Pp. VIII + 175. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2016. Cased, £64.99, Us$99.99. Isbn: 978-1-107-08085-0. [REVIEW]David Meban - 2017 - The Classical Review 67 (1):91-92.
Literacy, Authorship, and Belief in Medieval and Renaissance Europe.Greg Walker - 1996 - The European Legacy 1 (8):2280-2283.
Reception of Homer Kim Homer Between History and Fiction in Imperial Greek Literature. Pp. Xii + 246. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010. Cased, £55, US$95. ISBN: 978-0-521-19449-5. [REVIEW]Dana Fields - 2012 - The Classical Review 62 (1):107-109.
Evaluating Emotional Responses to Fiction.Paisley Livingston & Alfred Mele - 1997 - In Mette Hjort & Sue Laver (eds.), Emotion and the Arts.
Review of Amie L. Thomasson, Fiction and Metaphysics. [REVIEW]Achille C. Varzi - 2001 - Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 63 (3):723-727.
Alfano, Mark. Character as Moral Fiction.Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2013. Pp. 234. $90.00.Candace L. Upton - 2014 - Ethics 124 (3):598-602.
Character as Moral Fiction by Mark Alfano, 2013 Cambridge, Cambridge University Press 226 Pp, £55.00 (Hb). [REVIEW]Liezl van Zyl - 2014 - Journal of Applied Philosophy 31 (1):104-106.
Maura Nolan, John Lydgate and the Making of Public Culture. (Cambridge Studies in Medieval Literature, 58.) Cambridge, Eng.: Cambridge University Press, 2005. Pp. Ix, 276. $85. [REVIEW]Helen Barr - 2006 - Speculum 81 (4):1239-1240.
Nì Mheallaigh Reading Fiction with Lucian. Fakes, Freaks and Hyperreality. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 2014. Pp. Xii + 305. £65./$99. 9781107079335. [REVIEW]Lawrence Kim - 2016 - Journal of Hellenic Studies 136:211-212.
A Review of “Character as Moral Fiction”, by Mark Alfano: Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2013, Pp. Iii + 226, $120. [REVIEW]Christine Swanton - 2015 - Australasian Journal of Philosophy 93 (1):203-203.
A Review of “Character as Moral Fiction”, by Mark Alfano: Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2013, Pp. Iii + 226, $120. [REVIEW]Christine Swanton - 2015 - Australasian Journal of Philosophy 93 (1):203-203.
Petronian Images V. Rimell: Petronius and the Anatomy of Fiction . Pp. X + 239. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002. Cased, £45/Us$60. Isbn: 0-521-81586-X. [REVIEW]F. Jones - 2004 - The Classical Review 54 (02):403-.
Emotion, Fiction, and Rationality: Cognitivism Vs. Non-Cognitivism.Jinhee Choi - 1999 - Dissertation, The University of Wisconsin - Madison
Analytics
Added to PP index
2020-07-24
Total views
159 ( #73,700 of 2,507,593 )
Recent downloads (6 months)
28 ( #32,085 of 2,507,593 )
2020-07-24
Total views
159 ( #73,700 of 2,507,593 )
Recent downloads (6 months)
28 ( #32,085 of 2,507,593 )
How can I increase my downloads?
Downloads