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The Limits of Empathy and Compassion in Delphine de Vigan’s No et moi and Les Heures souterraines

Lookup NU author(s): Dr Kathryn Robson

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Abstract

This article explores the limits and possibilities of reading empathy and compassion as portrayed in two French novels, No et moi (2007) and Les Heures souterraines (2011), by the prize-winning author, Delphine de Vigan. I analyse how contemporary theory deploys figures of space and location to contrast empathy (defined as other-oriented) with compassion (defined as self-oriented), yet the distance between these collapses when the former is shown to be near-impossible. Rather than equate empathy with shared affect/position (imagining oneself in the other’s place) I relocate it within displaced, disrupted relations mirrored within the reading encounter itself.

Publication metadata

Author(s): Robson K

Publication type: Article

Publication status: Published

Journal: Modern Language Review

Year: 2015

Volume: 110

Issue: 3

Pages: 677-693

Print publication date: 01/07/2015

Online publication date: 31/07/2015

Acceptance date: 15/08/2014

ISSN (print): 0026-7937

ISSN (electronic): 2222-4319

URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.5699/modelangrevi.110.3.0677

DOI: 10.5699/modelangrevi.110.3.0677

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