Fiction, Empathy, and the Material World.

Fiction may function to support human social interaction by cultivating empathic abilities. The past decade has yielded promising evidence in support of this theory, though the multidimensionality of both fiction-engagement and empathy have presented methodological challenges and led to mixed findings. Studies have tended to focus on reading and have generally treated cognition as a solely internal process. I position empathy and engagement with fiction as ontologically extended processes. I argue that further systematic exploration of fiction technologies would promote a comprehensive and culturally relevant account of the relationship between fiction-engagement and empathy and enhance understanding of its cognitive architecture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of Comparative Literature & Aesthetics is the property of Vishvannath Kaviraja Institute of Comparative Literature & Aesthetics and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)