Description
Book SynopsisNegative Empathy in Literature and the Arts explores how readers and viewers engage cognitively and affectively with ethically troubling artworks across literature, the visual and performing arts, and screen media. Drawing on aesthetics, cultural history and theory, psychology, and neuroscience, Stefano Ercolino and Massimo Fusillo introduce the concept of âœnegative empathyâ to describe the ambivalent and destabilizing emotional responses elicited by representations of negativity in art. Rather than dismissing empathy as naÃve, the authors argue for a more nuanced understanding of its darker forms and their cognitive and ethical value. Through a comparative and intermedial approach, the book analyzes case studies from Littellâs The Kindly Ones to Wilsonâs Deafman Glance; from Verdiâs Macbeth and Nitschâs Theatre of Orgies and Mysteries to Caravaggioâs Martyrdom of Saint Matthew, Mapplethorpeâs âœXâ Portfolio, Kieferâs The Seven Heavenly Palaces, Hanekeâs The White Ribbon, and Gilliganâs Breaking Badâoffering a compelling new theory of aesthetic engagement.
