Reading Fiction Can Rewire Real-World Forgiveness and Empathy

Summary: Reading stories that employ “internal focalization”, granting readers direct access to a character’s private remorse, sparks genuine empathy that leads to forgiveness of fictional misdeeds. Researchers found that this…

Infectious diseases killed Victorian children at alarming rates — their novels highlight the fragility of public health today

Modern medicine has enabled citizens of wealthy, industrialized nations to forget that children once routinely died in shocking numbers. Teaching 19th-century English literature, I regularly encounter gutting depictions of losing…

To better understand addiction, students in this course take a close look at liquor in literature

Uncommon Courses is an occasional series from The Conversation U.S. highlighting unconventional approaches to teaching. Title of course: Alcohol in American Literature What prompted the idea for the course? I…