AFFECT AND NARRATIVE EMPATHY

The course “Theory of Literature” is part of the “characterizing [caratterizzanti]” educational activities of the “Literatures and Cultures” curriculum of the MA program in European, American and Postcolonial Language and Literature. Its objectives are to help students 1) to become more familiar with the history of European literature and its link with cultural history from a comparative and an interdisciplinary perspective, and 2) to improve their knowledge of literary theory and the methodological tools for textual analysis acquired during previous college education.

Knowledge and Understanding
1) Knowledge and understanding—also in the original language—of European literature both at expert level and from a comparative perspective
2) Knowledge and understanding of the theoretical aspects of textual analysis covered during previous college education, the terminology of literary criticism, and literary history and its connections with cultural history, with specific reference to the comparative history and theory of the novel
3) Knowledge and understanding of European culture and literature in their historical context and in relation to a literary form (the novel) and two research fields (affect theory and empathy studies)

Applying Knowledge and Understanding
1) Ability to take part in a scholarly debate on the history and theory of the novel in an expert way, speak in public, and defend a thesis
2) Ability to act confidently in high-level professional situations and intercultural contexts requiring knowledge of European cultures and literatures and the ability to relate that knowledge to general and topical questions

Making Judgments
1) Ability to develop intellectual independence with regard to the topics covered in the lectures

Communication Skills
1) Ability to communicate orally and effectively the knowledge acquired using the correct terminology
2) Ability to interact with peers and the teacher in a critical and respectful way both in person and in the virtual classroom

Learning Skills
1) Ability to navigate critically the required readings and the bibliography they provide

Advanced knowledge of English and basic knowledge of the methods and problems of literary theory.

Affect and Narrative Empathy
The course will explore the role of affect in readers’ empathic response to literary characters and in their concern for sensitive issues tackled in narrative fiction. Affective arousal will be regarded as both the primary source of either positive or negative empathic reactions to fictional characters, and a privileged locus where to look for the political stakes of narrative empathy. By relying on affect theory and the most recent developments in the research on empathy in literary studies, we will place the categories of affect and empathy at the core of our approach to three novels: Joris-Karl Huysmans’ Against Nature (1884), Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray (1890), and Louis-Ferdinand Céline’s Journey to the End of the Night (1932). In particular, we will investigate the function of affect in eliciting our empathic reaction to the characters depicted in these novels, and in our emotional involvement with some of the most important themes they deal with, such as the conflictual relationship between nature and artificiality, center and periphery, colonialism and migration, industrial modernity and capitalistic development, inequality and revolt.

Huysmans, Joris-Karl. Against Nature. 1884. Ed. Nicholas White. Trans. Margaret Mauldon. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009.
Wilde, Oscar. The Picture of Dorian Gray. 1890. In Oscar Wilde, The Major Works. Ed. Isobel Murray. New York: Oxford University Press, 1989.
Céline, Louis-Ferdinand. Journey to the End of the Night. 1932. Trans. Ralph Manheim. Fwd. John Banville. Intro. André Derval. Richmond: Alma Classics, 2014.

Massumi, Brian. Parables for the Virtual: Movement, Affect, Sensation. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2002. (Introduction and Chapter 1)
Keen, Suzanne. Empathy and the Novel. New York: Oxford University Press, 2007. (Preface and Chapters 1, 2, 3)
Gregg, Melissa and Gregory J. Seigworth. The Affect Theory Reader. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2010. (Introduction and Chapter 9)
Jameson, Fredric. The Antinomies of Realism. London and New York: Verso, 2013. (Introduction and Part One)
Ercolino, Stefano. “Negative Empathy: History, Theory, Criticism,” Orbis Litterarum 73.3 (2018): 243-262.

Instead of Suzanne Keen’s Narrative Empathy and Fredric Jameson’s The Antinomies of Realism, students of the MA program in Environmental Humanities will read the following text:
Garrard, Greg. Ecocriticism. New York: Routledge, 2004.

Non-attending students [non frequentanti] will also read this essay:
Ngai, Sianne. Ugly Feelings. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2005.

Learning will be verified by means of an oral examination and an optional final paper.

1) Frontal lectures
2) Online sharing of course materials
3) In-class and online discussion

English

oral

This subject deals with topics related to the macro-area "Climate change and energy" and contributes to the achievement of one or more goals of U. N. Agenda for Sustainable Development