“Did you Feel as if you Hated People?”: Emotional Literacy Through Fiction

Abstract

Recent studies in cognitive literary criticism have provided scholars of literature with new stimulating approaches to literary texts. The ability to understand how other people think and feel, known as empathy, is arguably the most important capacity that distinguishes human beings from other living organisms. Empathy is also one of the most essential social skills. However, this capacity does not appear automatically; it develops gradually, and it can be enhanced and trained. The article argues, taking Frances Hodgson Burnett's children's novel The Secret Garden as an example, that emotional literacy can be enhanced through the reading of fiction.