Colloquium: 鈥淭he experience of literature鈥 Natallia Stelmak Schabner, City College,
Colloquium: Natallia Stelmak Schabner, City College 鈥淭he experience of literature: emotion, mental content and aesthetic properties鈥
Colloquium: Natallia Stelmak Schabner, City College
Title: The experience of literature: emotion, mental content and aesthetic properties
Date: Thursday Oct 31 from 12.30pm鈥2pm
Location: NAC 5/144, Philosophy/History Conference Room
Faculty organizer: Chad Kidd (ckidd@ccny.cuny.edu)
Abstract: Why does fiction move us? Jenefer Robinson (鈥淒eeper Than Reason鈥) argues that emotions begin as immediate, physiologically-based appraisals that kick in before cognition, so belief in what sparks the emotion is not necessary. But how would fiction, which we experience through cognition, trigger such appraisals? I argue that writers such as Dostoevsky use narrative devices such as ambiguity, unreliable narration and complex emotional states or 鈥渆motional dissonance鈥 in characters to move us emotionally. These techniques engage us in a process of active reconstruction of a narrative鈥檚 content, mirroring how we engage with experience, thereby creating real emotional responses.