Literary Expression

Abstract

Literature is, for pragmatic reasons, the most accessible of art forms for our purpose. Study in psychology has found that reading literature enhances a person’s ability to understand others’ thoughts and feelings and to form complex social relationships. Literature has arguably widened the opportunity for empathy with larger groups of people. We closely study a passage in the novel Huckleberry Finn, where the protagonist has to decide whether to help his friend, an African American man, escape slavery. It is a fine example of Dewey’s dramatic rehearsal. We also study the novel Middlemarch, and discuss how literature can nourish empathy so well.

The novel is itself a moral achievement.

—Martha Nussbaum