Narrative empathy for 'the other' in American literature, 1845-1945

"Empathy" is a relatively new word in the English language, dating back to the early twentieth century as a translation of the German term Einfuhlung ("in-feeling" or "feeling into" a work of art or another being). Yet the interpersonal relations that "empathy" encompasses are as old as human history, and literary depictions of empathy are as old as human narratives. Narrative empathy is a central trope of American literature because in a nation of immigrants and enslaved subjects who became fully recognized citizens---not to mention the native peoples who had always lived here---imaginative identification with unfamiliar "Others" became a constant necessity. Narrative empathy encompasses both diegetic empathy, or empathic relations between narrators and characters (or between multiple characters), and readerly empathy, or empathic relations between readers and narrators or characters within the text. Readerly empathy results from a complicated interplay between formal qualities, personal factors, and authorial information. Considering literary narratives as rhetorical situations reveals that narratives are conceived and received as interactions between authors, texts, and readers. Narrative judgments about how characters think, feel, and behave within the context of their particular storyworlds become more influential than any categorical identifications that we forge---either with or against characters---based on personal similarities or differences. Whereas "the Other" is perceived through a lens of radical and/or categorical alterity, empathy works against the logic of Otherness as an imaginative identification with an/other.;I was lucky to attend graduate school with a cohort of witty and wonderful colleagues, who are too many to name here. Special gratitude is due to my "Collective"---Jess Martell, Zack Vernon, and Sarah Marsh. We have studied together, traveled together, taught and tutored together, conducted archival research together, delivered conference panels together---with the Collective assembled, all things are possible! Through The Southern Literary Journal, I was also blessed to encounter an inspiring graduate mentor in Kristina Bobo, as well as a wise friend and coeditor in Jameela Dallis. If graduate school can be experienced with such wonderful fellowtravelers, it is bound to be a pleasure.;My project has been supported and enriched by many other generous scholars, including Bill Ferris, Mary Floyd-Wilson, Jane Thrailkill, Bill Andrews, Tyler Curtain, Eliza Richards, Inger Brodie, Trudier Harris, Megan Matchinske, Fritz Breithaupt, Melanie Green, Jordan Carpenter, Ed Fisher, Mike Millner, Natalia Smith, Ralph Savarese, Vicki Russell, and Alex Ruch. I am very grateful to you all.;And this work would never have been possible without my brilliant, beautiful, and patient wife, Sarah Rapisardo Horn, who trusted and tolerated me throughout the daunting and probably ill-advised process of pursuing doctorates together while raising a family. We survived! To Kaitlyn, Sophia, and Maris Mae, I thank you for not coloring in my books, and for reminding me that "work" and "life" should not be synonymous.