Empathet(H)Ics: Intersubjectivity, Interobjectivity, and (Non)Human Storytellers in Colum Mccann’s Let The Great World Spin

IF 0.1 0 LITERATURE
Ada Beleuță
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引用次数: 0

Abstract

Tracing some of the inflection points in our conceptualization of empathy, social cognition, intersubjective understanding, and social theories over time, this essay attempts to contextualize and give a possible explanation to the more radical changes determined by the so-called nonhuman turn. Drawing on the theories proposed by Steven Connor, Bill Brown, and Bruno Latour on the relations between human and nonhuman agents, the paper will argue for the inherent potential of things to both exceed the limits of human agency and cognitive capacities (specifically, memory and intersubjective understanding) and foster their expansion. A reading of Colum McCann’s Let the Great World Spin (2009) will emphasize the importance of interobjectivity as a mechanism of augmenting empathy and intersubjective understanding. The polyphony of narrativized memories of loss, mourning, trauma – and even pre-trauma, in their construction of an alternative history to the 9/11 terrorist attacks, uses things to encode, store, and retrieve memories, as well as to facilitate (re)connections with others beyond boundaries of space, time, or death. Thus, the democratic force of storytelling returns to corroborate “a democracy extended to things” (Latour).
共情(H)Ics:主体间性、客体间性和(非)人类故事讲述者在麦肯的《让伟大的世界旋转》一书中
随着时间的推移,本文追踪了我们对移情、社会认知、主体间理解和社会理论概念化的一些转折点,试图将所谓的非人转向所决定的更激进的变化置于情境中,并给出可能的解释。本文借鉴了史蒂文·康纳、比尔·布朗和布鲁诺·拉图尔提出的关于人类和非人类主体之间关系的理论,认为事物的内在潜力既超过了人类主体和认知能力(特别是记忆和主体间理解)的极限,又促进了它们的扩展。阅读Colum McCann的《让大世界旋转》(2009)将强调客体间性作为增强移情和主体间理解机制的重要性。失去、哀悼、创伤甚至创伤前的叙事记忆的复调,在构建9/11恐怖袭击的替代历史时,利用事物来编码、存储和检索记忆,并促进与空间、时间或死亡之外的其他人的(重新)联系。因此,讲故事的民主力量再次证实了“延伸到事物的民主”(拉图尔)。
本文章由计算机程序翻译,如有差异,请以英文原文为准。
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来源期刊
Metacritic Journal for Comparative Studies and Theory
Metacritic Journal for Comparative Studies and Theory Arts and Humanities-Arts and Humanities (all)
CiteScore
0.90
自引率
0.00%
发文量
15
审稿时长
7 weeks
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