A Study in Empathy: Cognitive Disorders Exposed in First Person Narrators
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Vanderbilt University
Abstract
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English Department Honors Thesis, ENGL 290B, Professor Humberto Garcia.
My thesis navigates the intersection between cognitive studies and literary analysis, specifically detailing how unreliable narration can be connected to cognitive impairments in first person narrators of early twentieth century American novels. The stories told by character narrators such as Nick Carraway from F. Scott Fitzgerald's "The Great Gatsby" and Benjy Compson from William Faulkner's "The Sound and the Fury" are revealed, through exploration of the biology behind empathy and social interaction, namely "theory of mind," as complex and skewed versions of reality.
Keywords
cognitive impairment, twentieth century American novels, cognitive literary studies, unreliable narration