Empathy and the Novel

275 Pages·2007·1.34 MB·English

by  Suzanne Keen

Empathy and the Novel
TThhiiss ppaaggee iinntteennttiioonnaallllyy lleefftt bbllaannkk
Empathy and the Novel
Suzanne Keen
3
2007
3
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Keen, Suzanne.
Empathy and the novel / Suzanne Keen.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-19-517576-9
1. Fiction—Psychological aspects. 2. Empathy. 3. Empathy in literature.
I. Title.
PN3352.P7K44 2007
808.301'9—dc22 2006022453
9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Printed in the United States of America
on acid-free paper
for Fran,
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TThhiiss ppaaggee iinntteennttiioonnaallllyy lleefftt bbllaannkk
P
REFACE
Empathy and the Novel presents a comprehensive account of the relation-
ships among novel reading, empathy, and altruism, exploring the implica-
tions for literary studies of the widely promulgated “empathy-altruism”
hypothesis.1 Social and developmental psychologists, philosophers of vir-
tue ethics, feminist advocates of an ethic of caring, and many defenders of
the humanities believe that empathic emotion motivates altruistic action,
resulting in less aggression, less fi ckle helping, less blaming of victims for
their misfortunes, increased cooperation in confl ict situations, and improved
actions on behalf of needy individuals and members of stigmatized groups.2
The celebration of novel reading as a stimulus to the role-taking imagina-
tion and emotional responsiveness of readers—in countless reading group
guides and books on the virtues of reading, in character education curri-
cula, and in public defenses of humanities funding—augments the empa-
thy-altruism hypothesis, substituting experiences of narrative empathy for
shared feelings with real others. Read Henry James and live well (Love’s
Knowledge 148); become a better world citizen through canonical novels,
philosopher Martha Nussbaum advocates (Cultivating Humanity 90). Dis-
cover compassion through “The Lion and the Mouse” or “The Legend of
the Dipper” writes William J. Bennett (Children’s Book of Virtues 6–7). Shed
your prejudices through novel reading, suggests novelist Sue Monk Kidd
(“Common Heart” 9). Azar Nafi si affi rms, “empathy is at the heart of the
novel,” and warns, if you don’t read, you won’t be able to empathize (Read-
ing Lolita 111). Is the attractive and consoling case for fi ction implied by
these representative views defensible? Surveying the existing research on
the consequences of reading, I fi nd the case for altruism stemming from
novel reading inconclusive at best and nearly always exaggerated in favor of
the benefi cial effects of novel reading.
There is no question, however, that readers feel empathy with (and sym-
pathy for) fi ctional characters and other aspects of fi ctional worlds. As this
book demonstrates, readers’ and authors’ empathy certainly contributes
to the emotional resonance of fi ction, its success in the marketplace, and
its character-improving reputation. My discussion in chapter 1 of empa-
thy as psychologists understand it and my historical survey in chapter 2 of
viii Preface
the debates about the positive and negative results of feeling with fi ction
contextualize the current vogue for empathy, arising from two sources. We
are living in a time when the activation of mirror neurons in the brains of
onlookers can be recorded as they witness another’s actions and emotional
reactions.3 Contemporary neuroscience has brought us much closer to an
understanding of the neural basis for human mind reading and emotion
sharing abilities. The activation of onlookers’ mirror neurons by a coach’s
demonstration of technique or an internal visualization of proper form,
and by representations in television, fi lm, visual art, and pornography, has
already been recorded.4 Simply hearing a description of an absent other’s
actions lights up mirror neuron areas on fMRI imaging of the human brain.5
The possibility that novel reading stimulates mirror neurons’ activation can
now, as never before, undergo neuroscientifi c investigation.
Neuroscientists have already declared that people scoring high on empa-
thy tests have especially busy mirror neuron systems in their brains.6 For
the fi rst time we might investigate whether human differences in mirror
neuron activity can be altered by exposure to art, to teaching, to litera-
ture. This newly enabled capacity to study empathy at the cellular level
encourages speculation about human empathy’s positive consequences.
These speculations are not new, as any student of eighteenth-century moral
sentimentalism will affi rm, but they dovetail with efforts on the part of
present-day virtue ethicists, political philosophers, educators, theologians,
librarians, and interested parties such as authors and publishers to connect
the experience of empathy, including its literary form, with outcomes of
changed attitudes, improved motives, and better care and justice. Thus a
very specifi c, limited version of empathy located in the neural substrate
meets in the contemporary moment a more broadly and loosely defi ned,
fuzzier sense of empathy as the feeling precursor to and prerequisite for
liberal aspirations to greater humanitarianism. The sense of crisis stirred up
by reports of stark declines in reading goes into this mix, catalyzing fears
that the evaporation of a reading public leaves behind a population incapa-
ble of feeling with others. Yet the apparently threatened set of links among
novel reading, experiences of narrative empathy, and altruism has not yet
been proven to exist. Empathy robustly enters into affective responses to
fi ction, but its role in shaping the behavior of emotional readers has been
debated for three centuries. Chapter 2 surveys those debates, and chapter
6 revisits them by way of considering contemporary critiques of empathy
by false empathy and failed empathy critics.
Unlike these critics, I regard human empathy as a precious quality of
our social natures. Despite the disrepute of generalizations about univer-
sal human traits among postcolonial and feminist theorists, I observe that
women writers and novelists from around the world endorse the notion of
shared human emotions when they overtly call upon their readers’ empa-
thy. I sympathize with their ambition, while remaining skeptical about con-
Preface ix
sequences beyond immediate feeling responses. However, I hold that narra-
tive empathy need not defi nitively perform renovations of civic virtue nor
of individual behavior to be recognized as a core component of emotional
response to fi ction, the loss of which (for large numbers of nonreaders) is
indeed to be regretted. Understanding the aesthetic effects of narrative
empathy illuminates the responses of feeling brains to the word-wrought
spaces and inhabitants of fi ctional worlds. The most artful and complex
evocation of shared feeling accomplished by the novelist’s art deserves
attention, not only because the insights of literary analysis may assist psy-
chologists and neuroscientists in the framing of the next layer of questions
about readers, empathy, and altruism. Discoveries about narrative empathy
may also help explain aspects of literary response that have been neglected
or disparaged by scholars even as they have been experienced by millions
of readers.
This brings us to the problem of popular fi ction, which has not often been
praised for the benefi cial effects attributed to great literature. If immersion
in culturally valued fi ctional worlds—canonical literature and serious fi c-
tion—predisposes readers to good citizenship, then what happens to readers
(most of those who are left in the dwindling tally) who choose mass-market
fi ction? Does exposure to attractively rendered vice make readers vicious?
The deleterious effects of violent television and videogames documented in
case law and social psychology do not extend, according to most accounts, to
prose fi ction.7 The cultural tendency to value novels and denigrate cartoons
or video games, however, contributes to assumptions about good and bad
forms of narrative. In general, prose fi ction benefi ts from the contrast with
other popular cultural narrative forms. This book scrutinizes the notion,
shared by many librarians, teachers, and millions of participants in book
groups, that reading certain novels is good for people. From its boosters, key
features of the reading experience receive positive emphasis. Limiting the
effects of reading to those enjoyed by highly educated consumers of serious
fi ction shifts the emphasis to more rarifi ed qualities of narrative such as defa-
miliarization. However, middlebrow readers tend to value novels offering
opportunities for strong character identifi cation. They report feeling both
empathy with and sympathy for fi ctional characters. They believe that novel
reading opens their minds to experiences, dilemmas, time periods, places,
and situations that would otherwise be closed to them. They emphasize
the universality of human emotional responses in their reports on reading,
sometimes undervaluing real differences among people of diverse cultures.
They unself-consciously judge the success of novels based on how well they
could identify with characters’ feelings. Though these claims have bearing
on matters of narrative technique and form, readers tend not to adopt the
analytical language of academic literary criticism when they defend the
novel and novel reading. Empathy shapes their recommendations and judg-
ments about fi ction.