But Does Reading Novels make us Better? Literary Fiction and Moral Development
The novel has been enshrined as being one of the fundamental “vicarious experience techniques” for training our ability to put ourselves in other people’s shoes. There have been many who have seen a clear moral effect in this continuous exploration of otherness. The article reviews (1) the arguments...
- Autores:
-
Altuna, Belén
- Tipo de recurso:
- Fecha de publicación:
- 2022
- Institución:
- Universidad EAFIT
- Repositorio:
- Repositorio EAFIT
- Idioma:
- spa
- OAI Identifier:
- oai:repository.eafit.edu.co:10784/33325
- Acceso en línea:
- https://hdl.handle.net/10784/33325
- Palabra clave:
- Otherness, empathy, imagination, moral development, literature
Alteridad, empatía, imaginación, desarrollo moral, literatura
- Rights
- License
- Copyright © 2022 Belén Altuna
| Summary: | The novel has been enshrined as being one of the fundamental “vicarious experience techniques” for training our ability to put ourselves in other people’s shoes. There have been many who have seen a clear moral effect in this continuous exploration of otherness. The article reviews (1) the arguments of the enthusiasts of this idea, those who believe that reading novels makes us more empathetic and supportive; (2) those of moderates, who find that, above all, it helps us to exercise our moral judgment, and (3) those of the skeptics, who hardly see any moral purpose in the habit. The author then reviews some complexities of moral development, which make an easy connection unlikely, and concludes by distinguishing the ways in which reading novels can contribute to cultivating the humanity in us and to deepening humanitarianism. |
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