Project

Between compassion and solidarity. Constellations of empathy in novels of social criticism (1848-1980)

Code
01N01216
Duration
01 January 2016 → 31 October 2020
Funding
Regional and community funding: Special Research Fund
Research disciplines
  • Humanities and the arts
    • Literatures in Dutch
Keywords
19th and 20th-century novel empathy studies dutch literature cognitive literary studies social criticism 19th Century 20th Century Dutch Belgium Western Europe Literary studies
 
Project description

The project examines the construction of empathy in Flemish novels of social criticism (1848-1980). The corpus consists of novels which strategically evoke empathy for and within the working class to criticize perceived social injustice. A cognitive and narratological analysis of these constellations of empathy allows us to chart the developments and the coherence of this strong tradition of social criticism .