Connectedness and Character

Abstract

This chapter explores the way we feel connected to others through fiction, and what part character identification plays in this process. It looks at stories used to stave off loneliness, to establish ingroups and outgroups, to help us to feel intelligent or equipped with special knowledge, as well as the values of ritual and rite-of-passage. It also covers how we can articulate our selfhood through fictive characters and broadcast our self-schemas using the stories we like, as well as roleplay, ideology and status markers.