University of Galway

Course Module Information

Course Modules

Semester 2 | Credits: 5

How and why do literary texts draw readers into forms of emotional identification with their subjects and characters? By contrast, what are the effects of a deliberate withholding of identification? This seminar course will introduce and contextualise critical debates on the moral efficacy of empathy as this pertains to the question of narrative approach. Can an empathetic reading process foster more ethical modes of engagement within the real world or does the experience of catharsis lead to a withdrawal from greater responsibility? Are distancing effects an alternative response to empathy’s failure? The course will consider representations of and perspectives on empathy and estrangement within a selection of literary texts, demonstrating the often complicated co-existence of these conflicting impulses across literary history more broadly and even within a single text. We will examine techniques both for closing the gap between reader and character (free indirect discourse, stream of consciousness) and for creating distance (frame narratives, exteriority, irony). We will further explore the ways in which such techniques can be mapped onto genre, from sentimental literature to satire, and how expectations, on the level of genre and emotional response, can also be radically overturned.
(Language of instruction: English)

Learning Outcomes
  1. Demonstrate an understanding of different theoretical and literary critical perspectives on the concepts of empathy and estrangement.
  2. Apply these theoretical and literary critical perspectives in the analysis of selected primary texts.
  3. Show an awareness of the development and application of specific narrative techniques to engender emotional identification and/or distancing effects.
  4. Write critically about the relationship between narrative strategy and literary genre.
Assessments
  • Continuous Assessment (100%)
Teachers
Reading List
  1. "‘The Natural History of German Life’ (1856) - Essay to be Circulated" by George Eliot
  2. "'Amy Foster' (1901) - Story to be Circulated" by Joseph Conrad
  3. "'The Garden Party' (1922) - Story to be Circulated" by Katherine Mansfield
  4. "Beware of Pity (1939)" by Stefan Zweig (Trans. Anthea Bell)
    ISBN: 978-190896837.
  5. "‘Previous Condition’ (1948) - Story to be Circulated" by James Baldwin
  6. "Extracts from essays by Viktor Shklovsky, Bertolt Brecht, Muriel Spark and story by Muriel Spark - To be Circulated" by n/a
  7. "My Year of Rest and Relaxation" by Ottessa Moshfegh
    ISBN: 9781784707422.
    Publisher: Arrow
  8. "Interior Chinatown" by Charles Yu
    ISBN: 9780307948472.
    Publisher: Vintage
  9. "‘Fatherland’ (2017) - Story to be Circulated" by Viet Thanh Nguyen
The above information outlines module EN3155: "Literature, Empathy and Estrangement (S2)" and is valid from 2021 onwards.
Note: Module offerings and details may be subject to change.