Fiction in Times of Pandemic: an analysis of Daniel Defoe’s “A Journal of the Plague Year”
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.5902/2179378643927Keywords:
Fiction, Pandemic, Critical cognitivism, Understanding, Empathy, Social distancingAbstract
I will analyze Daniel Defoe’s A Journal of the Plague Year as a thought experiment that gives us prescriptions on how to act in times of pandemic. In order to show that works of fiction do not possess aesthetic value only, but also a cognitive character, I will defend critic cognitivism and thus hold that the cognitive gains one has from fiction occur in a reflective aftermath in relation to the immediate experience with the work. Then I will argue that fiction has a heuristic vantage in comparison to philosophy and the sciences because a fictional narrative provides the spectator a privileged perspective on the facts and on the character’s thoughts. Such a perspective might sensitize the spectator and make him empathetic with a character who suffers; and that may function, in times of pandemic, as a defense of the prevention measures, such as social distancing.Downloads
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