The Bond of Empathy in Medieval and Early Modern Literature

Description

This study examines the various means of becoming empathetic and using this knowledge to explain the epistemic import of the characters' interaction in the works written by Chaucer, Shakespeare, and their contemporaries. By attuning oneself to another's expressive phenomena, the empathizer acquires an inter- and intrapersonal knowledge that exposes the limitations of hyperbole, custom, or unbridled passion to explain the profundity of their bond. Understanding the substantive meaning of the characters' discourse and narrative context discloses their motivations and how they view themselves. The aim is to explore the place of empathy in select late medieval and early modern portrayals of the body and mind and explicate the role they play in forging an intimate rapport. Introduction 1 Chapter 1. The Philosophical Underpinnings of Empathy 18 Sympathy’s Value 25 Empathy Today 30 Chapter 2. Empathy’s Volition in Preserving a Medieval Fraternal Bond 36 Amis and Amiloun: The Choice to Care 37 Scotus’s Dual Affections 42 The Self-Determining Properties of Amis and Amiloun’s Will 45 Putting into Praxis the Will’s Choice 49 The Sensory Power of Empathy in 'The Second Nun’s Tale' 56 Chapter 3. Empathy for an Aged Patriarch and a Young Lover: A Phenomenological Inquiry into Shakespeare’s Supporting Cast 78 The Wise Fool 87 Empathy’s Tempest 111 Chapter 4. Projecting an Empathy that Transgresses This World’s Bounds in Seventeenth-Century Metaphysical Poetry 126 Crashaw’s Religious Heroines and Their Life in Thought 146 Teresian Poetry 162 Epilogue 170 Index 172