Cinematic Empathies
I wrote one of the chapter (‘Cinematic Empathies. Spectator involvement in the film experience’) of the book Kinesthetic Empathy in Creative and Cultural Practices, edited by Dee Reynolds (The University of Manchester) and Matthew Reason (The University of York). The aim of my chapter is to bring to light the central role of empathy in spectators’ involvement in narrative fiction film. I recall some of the main contributions of film theorists of the 1920s and 1930s (Freeburg, Epstein, Balázs, Arnheim, Eisenstein), with the aim of demonstrating that empathy is inherent in the nature of narrative cinema itself and is pivotal to describing the variety and complexity of film spectatorship as an intensified experience involving the film’s body and the spectator’s body.
Kinesthetic Empathy in Creative and Cultural Practices
edited by Dee Reynolds and Matthew Reason
Publisher: Intellect
Paperback 224 pages
ISBN 9781841504919
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A key interdisciplinary concept in our understanding of social interaction across creative and cultural practices, kinesthetic empathy describes the ability to experience empathy merely by observing the movements of another human being. Encouraging readers to sidestep the methodological and disciplinary boundaries associated with the arts and sciences, Kinesthetic Empathy in Creative and Cultural Practices offers innovative and critical perspectives on topics ranging from art to sport, film to physical therapy.