Patterns of cognitive dissonance in readers' engagement with characters
- Author
- Marco Caracciolo (UGent)
- Organization
- Abstract
- Leon Festinger’s account of cognitive dissonance, published in 1957, has become one of the most successful theories in the history of social psychology. I argue that Festinger’s framework—and the research it generated over the last sixty years—can shed light on key aspects of readers’ engagement with literary characters. Literature can invite the audience to vicariously experience characters’ dissonance through an empathetic mechanism, but it can also induce dissonant states in readers by encouraging them to take on attitudes and beliefs that are significantly different from their own. I suggest that there are two strategies—or patterns of reader-response—through which the audience can cope with the dissonance between their own worldview and the characters’: attitude change and imaginative resistance. In the first, readers adjust their own beliefs and values according to what they have experienced and learned in adopting characters’ perspectives. By contrast, in imaginative resistance readers’ worldview prevents them from establishing an empathetic bond with characters. I integrate these hypotheses into a model that builds on theoretical as well as empirical insights into reader-response.
- Keywords
- Cognitive dissonance, reader-response, characters, empathy
Citation
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication: http://hdl.handle.net/1854/LU-8509160
- MLA
- Caracciolo, Marco. “Patterns of Cognitive Dissonance in Readers’ Engagement with Characters.” ENTHYMEMA-INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF LITERARY CRITICISM LITERARY THEORY AND PHILOSOPHY OF LITERATURE, vol. 8, 2013, pp. 21–37, doi:10.13130/2037-2426/2903.
- APA
- Caracciolo, M. (2013). Patterns of cognitive dissonance in readers’ engagement with characters. ENTHYMEMA-INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF LITERARY CRITICISM LITERARY THEORY AND PHILOSOPHY OF LITERATURE, 8, 21–37. https://doi.org/10.13130/2037-2426/2903
- Chicago author-date
- Caracciolo, Marco. 2013. “Patterns of Cognitive Dissonance in Readers’ Engagement with Characters.” ENTHYMEMA-INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF LITERARY CRITICISM LITERARY THEORY AND PHILOSOPHY OF LITERATURE 8: 21–37. https://doi.org/10.13130/2037-2426/2903.
- Chicago author-date (all authors)
- Caracciolo, Marco. 2013. “Patterns of Cognitive Dissonance in Readers’ Engagement with Characters.” ENTHYMEMA-INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF LITERARY CRITICISM LITERARY THEORY AND PHILOSOPHY OF LITERATURE 8: 21–37. doi:10.13130/2037-2426/2903.
- Vancouver
- 1.Caracciolo M. Patterns of cognitive dissonance in readers’ engagement with characters. ENTHYMEMA-INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF LITERARY CRITICISM LITERARY THEORY AND PHILOSOPHY OF LITERATURE. 2013;8:21–37.
- IEEE
- [1]M. Caracciolo, “Patterns of cognitive dissonance in readers’ engagement with characters,” ENTHYMEMA-INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF LITERARY CRITICISM LITERARY THEORY AND PHILOSOPHY OF LITERATURE, vol. 8, pp. 21–37, 2013.
@article{8509160,
abstract = {{Leon Festinger’s account of cognitive dissonance, published in 1957, has become one of the most successful theories in the history of social psychology. I argue that Festinger’s framework—and the research it generated over the last sixty years—can shed light on key aspects of readers’ engagement with literary characters. Literature can invite the audience to vicariously experience characters’ dissonance through an empathetic mechanism, but it can also induce dissonant states in readers by encouraging them to take on attitudes and beliefs that are significantly different from their own. I suggest that there are two strategies—or patterns of reader-response—through which the audience can cope with the dissonance between their own worldview and the characters’: attitude change and imaginative resistance. In the first, readers adjust their own beliefs and values according to what they have experienced and learned in adopting characters’ perspectives. By contrast, in imaginative resistance readers’ worldview prevents them from establishing an empathetic bond with characters. I integrate these hypotheses into a model that builds on theoretical as well as empirical insights into reader-response.}},
author = {{Caracciolo, Marco}},
issn = {{2037-2426}},
journal = {{ENTHYMEMA-INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF LITERARY CRITICISM LITERARY THEORY AND PHILOSOPHY OF LITERATURE}},
keywords = {{Cognitive dissonance,reader-response,characters,empathy}},
language = {{eng}},
pages = {{21--37}},
title = {{Patterns of cognitive dissonance in readers' engagement with characters}},
url = {{http://doi.org/10.13130/2037-2426/2903}},
volume = {{8}},
year = {{2013}},
}
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