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1	"This, too, was myself": Empathic Unsettlement and the Victim/Perpetrator Binary in Robert Louis Stevenson's <em>Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde</em> Bruner, Brittany 01 March 2017 (has links) At first glance, Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is a tale that reinforces binaries. One of these is the self/other binary that is central to David Hume's and Adam Smith's theories of sympathy that conceive of a self imaginatively identifying and experiencing fellow-feeling for an other. However, this notion is complicated because Jekyll and Hyde are the same person. Further, many critics argue that Stevenson actually challenges binary thinking. While Hume and Smith do not challenge the self/other binary in connection with sympathy, trauma theory critics do challenge a self/other binary that lies at the heart of sympathy: the victim/perpetrator binary. Noted trauma theorist Dominick LaCapra develops a method of empathizing called empathic unsettlement where a secondary witness listens with empathy to a victim's traumatic witness while recognizing the difference of his or her position as a witness. He argues that perpetrators may also warrant understanding, but this understanding does not come through empathy. However, one of the hallmarks of empathic unsettlement is that it does not neatly resolve or replace traumatic narratives. Therefore, I argue that empathic unsettlement could also be a useful method for allowing a perpetrator to witness. While practicing empathic unsettlement for a perpetrator may not be worth the risk in real life, performing a thought experiment in literature can test how using empathy might provide a better way to theorize perpetration. Using two witnesses who attempt to practice empathic unsettlement for Jekyll and Hyde, Dr. Hastie Lanyon (who fails), and Mr. Gabriel John Utterson (who succeeds), I will show how empathic unsettlement could be used for both a victim and perpetrator to tease out the complexities of assessing a traumatic situation. Robert Louis Stevenson Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde John Utterson Hastie Lanyon Henry Jekyll Edward Hyde sympathy David Hume Adam Smith fellow-feeling empathy Dominick LaCapra empathic unsettlement binary self other victim perpetrator English Language and Literature
2	"Mot allt, som plågar mej, jag reagerar" : Känslorna och det proletära subjektet i Karl Östmans litterära verk / ”Against all that torments me, I react” : Feeling and the proletarian subject in the literary works of Karl Östman Lillhannus, Daniela January 2020 (has links) This thesis explores the representation of emotion and feeling in the 1910’s and 1920’s fictional works of Swedish working class writer Karl Östman, against the historical background of the working class movement and its social communities. The material consists mainly of three collections of short stories (Pilgrims, A Fiddle and a Woman and Hunger) and one novel (The Broad Road). The author analyses how emotions arise and are represented, the relationship between emotion and action, the individual and collective practices of feeling, as well as the emotional reactions following suffering. Dreams of love and compassion are also addressed to investigate whether the texts point to the possibility of a new emotional community for the working class. The theoretical basis of the thesis is Barbara H. Rosenwein’s concept of ”emotional communities”, along with Sara Ahmed’s theories of emotions as patterns of action. The thesis argues that all actions in Östman’s fiction are, fundamentally, emotional reactions. To gain an understanding of capitalism and class society as the causes of oppression, Östman’s characters must first understand their own emotions from the perspective of a socialist emotional community, rather than the prevailing emotional community of working class men. Only then can their emotional response to suffering become anger and action rather than hopelessness. Östman identifies the great shame of the worker not as his vulnerable position under capitalism but as the culture of non-feeling that workers impose on one another – a change of perspective that becomes a call for action. If read attentive to the role of emotions in the text, the thesis argues, Östman’s fiction possesses an urgency and a complexity previously not accredited to him. Karl Östman working class literature history of the working class movement class emotion feeling masculinity emotional communities fellow feeling compassion suffering pain hunger love anger Ahmed Rosenwein Karl Östman arbetarlitteratur arbetarrörelsens historia klass emotionsforskning emotioner känsla maskulinitet emotionell gemenskap medkänsla lidande hunger kärlek vrede Ahmed Rosenwein General Literature Studies Litteraturvetenskap

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"This, too, was myself": Empathic Unsettlement and the Victim/Perpetrator Binary in Robert Louis Stevenson's <em>Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde</em>

"Mot allt, som plågar mej, jag reagerar" : Känslorna och det proletära subjektet i Karl Östmans litterära verk / ”Against all that torments me, I react” : Feeling and the proletarian subject in the literary works of Karl Östman