ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on recipients, now treating the normative or educative function of literature in its relation to emotion. The reading of literature is commonly put forward as a way of producing empathic consequences. This intuitive view has been supported in recent years by a growing body of research that suggests literature can indeed cultivate empathy, at least in narrow contexts. Empathy should also be distinguished from what psychoanalytic writers refer to as "projection". Theoretical treatments of literature and empathy take up both real and implied readers, though often without being explicit about the distinction. To some extent, the issue of the gap between a reader and a character is a matter of implied readership. Readers may improve their affective Theory of Mind (ToM) through practice with literary narratives, or they may be drawn to read literary narratives due to their prior skills in affective ToM.
