Memory of the Present: Empathy and Identity in Young Adult Fiction

Nikolajeva, Maria

doi:10.7202/1062101ar

Cited by 10 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 58 publications

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“…For example, picture storybooks are studied by literary scholars (e.g., Agosto, 1999; Nikolajeva and Scott, 2013) and interactive storybooks are studied by researchers in media studies (e.g., Adam and Wild, 1997). Nikolajeva (2014a) has discussed the role of aesthetic synergy for image/text, brain laterality and emotional literacy and Mangen (2008) has theorized the role of the digital format in influencing adults’ empathy in reading literary fiction. Due to space restrictions and the complexity of arguments involved in how different modalities relate to authors’ stylistic choices and how these might influence brain activity and emotional responses, the conceptual framework is limited to text-based storybooks and narratives represented in written words .…”

Section: This Articlementioning

confidence: 99%

“…The seminal work by Nikolajeva on children’s reading of fiction (Nikolajeva, 2009, 2014a,b) highlights the fictional nature of narratives written for young children. Given that in storybooks, the characters represent people or, in the case of children’s books, sometimes personified animals, their experiences simulate social experiences.…”

Section: Fiction and Narrativesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For example, the first person in a written story involves more persuasion of subjectivity than the first person employed in oral narratives (Nielsen, 2004). The choice of present tense can enhance a story’s immediacy but it can also limit the reader’s imaginative landscape as ‘it confines the reader’s vicarious experience to a single consciousness in a temporal singularity’ (Nikolajeva, 2014a, p. 88).…”

Section: Explanatory Pathways In Literary Theorymentioning

confidence: 99%

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How Could Children’s Storybooks Promote Empathy? A Conceptual Framework Based on Developmental Psychology and Literary Theory

Kucirkova

2019

Front. Psychol.

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This conceptual paper proposes a framework for understanding the developmental mechanisms and literary characteristics that bind children’s storybooks with empathy. The article begins with a taxonomy of empathy composed of three key continuous dimensions: cognitive/emotional empathy, empathy for in-group and out-group members and empathy with positive and negative consequences. Insights from developmental psychology and literary theory form the basis for an interdisciplinary framework based on three premises: (1) book-reading can support empathy if it fosters in-group/out-group identification and minimizes in-group/out-group bias; (2) identification with characters who are dissimilar from the readers is the most valuable contribution of children’s storybooks to cognitive empathy; and (3) the quality of language positions children’s storybooks as an exceptional, but not exclusive, empathy-building form of fictional narratives. Implications for future intervention and empirical work are provided.

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Section: This Articlementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Fiction and Narrativesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Explanatory Pathways In Literary Theorymentioning

confidence: 99%

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How Could Children’s Storybooks Promote Empathy? A Conceptual Framework Based on Developmental Psychology and Literary Theory

Kucirkova

2019

Front. Psychol.

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“…Some discussions about narrator voice in the literature appear to suggest that third-person narrated novels have more benefit for readers, particularly in the areas of empathy (Mar and Oatley, 2008), theory of the mind and perspective taking (Nikolajeva, 2014). Based on that, findings from this study are encouraging.…”

Section: Narrator Voicementioning

confidence: 53%

Book Reading Choices of University Students in Jordan

Kamhieh¹

2018

IJL

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It is widely believed that today’s university students are so enamoured of social media and other online attractions that book reading is no longer included in their leisure-time activities, particularly in the Arab world where smartphone penetration is high and interest in reading is perceived to be low. As teachers, we have an obligation to ensure our students are reading books of their own choosing. This study investigates the book-reading choices of a convenience sample of 100 male and female students attending a private university in Jordan to determine 1) what those choices are, 2) what patterns we can detect among their choices and 3) what language and format they prefer to read in. Results show that students look West for most of their book choices, at the expense of their own literature and authors, that their gendered choices reflect many of the patterns already established in the literature, that they prefer to read printed rather than digital books and that third-person narrator voice is most commonly used in the novels they read. The study also suggests that book choice may have less to do with book-based appeal factors (such as, author, protagonist, etc.,) and more to do with the overall reading experience, and that the narrator voice used in the novels students read can contribute to the richness and overall value of that reading experience.

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“…Maria Nikolajeva (2014) further analyses the concept of empathy in young adult fiction, basing her study on recent studies in cognitive literary criticism, which have provided scholars of literature with new and stimulating approaches to literary texts, and neuroscientists with new insights about human emotions, empathy, and memory through evidence from fiction. What have so far been largely neglected, Nikolajeva argues, are the implications of cognitive criticism for the study of literature targeting a young audience, whose theory of mind and empathic skills are not yet fully developed.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Guest Editor's Introduction

Baena

2019

Narrative Works

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, participants were convinced of the need to further explore the connections between these issues across the multiple forms of contemporary narrative. Though much has been written about narrative identity, this collection of essays privileges its possibilities from the perspective of theories of emotions. The following articles refer both to the ways in which emotions are represented in narratives, as well as how these representations assume a reader's emotional competence, dwelling on the numerous ways in which narrative empathy is enhanced. Through close readings of different contemporary narratives, this special issue illustrates the advantages of narrative in the portrayal of emotions: Emotions are, unlike language, non-linear, imprecise, unstructured and diffuse. Therefore language is an inadequate medium to represent emotions, and "telling," that is, putting a simple label on an emotional state, is less engaging than "showing" by a wide register of narrative means available to fiction. (Nikolajeva, 2014, p. 95)

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Memory of the Present: Empathy and Identity in Young Adult Fiction

Cited by 10 publications

References 58 publications

How Could Children’s Storybooks Promote Empathy? A Conceptual Framework Based on Developmental Psychology and Literary Theory

How Could Children’s Storybooks Promote Empathy? A Conceptual Framework Based on Developmental Psychology and Literary Theory

Book Reading Choices of University Students in Jordan

Guest Editor's Introduction

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