ABSTRACT
Transcendence beyond the boundaries of self-identity is aided by identification with the literary characters who provide temporary residence and engagement with alternative identities and fates. This process may be enabled by either ‘projective identification’ or ‘empathy’, and the movement to and fro between these self-states while reading. The integration between them is discussed as a basis for significant development. The major literary illustration used in this chapter is Fernando Pessoa’s The Book of Disquiet ([1982] 2017). This extraordinary writer, considered as one of the most significant literary figures of the twentieth century and one of the greatest poets in the Portuguese language, wrote in more than 70 different voices (which he termed ‘heteronyms’). He is one of the writers who worked wonders in articulating the ongoing struggle against the boundaries of one’s sense of identity. Using his rich and original text, three processes involved in reading literature are revealed and described as promoting the transcendence beyond the confines of self-identity: (1) transcendence by placing the reader into a dreamlike state; (2) transcendence through the freedom embodied in the language of literature; and (3) transcendence through identification with characters in the literary text.
