Clash Moments and Narrative Empathy in Fiction

This article explores the interrelation of literary fiction and empathy and how stylistic analysis can provide insights into this interrelation, specifically through the study of point of view (POV) effects from a cognitive perspective. This article proposes the concept of “clash moments” as an area of focus, suggesting that these are parts of a literary text that are more emotionally salient and therefore particularly fruitful for the study of empathy in stylistics. This article argues that empathy in fiction can operate through both schema affirmation and/or reinforcement, where feelings of recognition and identification arise, and schema refreshment, where a reader may empathize with characters and experiences they are largely unfamiliar with or even prejudiced against. This article employs two extracts from the novel Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie to illustrate how empathy for the main character, Ifemelu, is potentially achieved in instances where Ifemelu’s POV clashes with that of other characters.