Thesis Format
Monograph
Degree
Master of Arts
Program
Theory and Criticism
Supervisor
Antonio Calcagno
Abstract
The goal of this project is to put our intuitions of love and understanding—and more generally, our practice of relationality—on trial, intuitions that have been shaped through a resonant colonial and patriarchal history. The main object of critique in this theoretical and autoethnographic analysis is empathy: empathy as tragic play, providing catharsis in its distant indulgence; it is, at every moment, a step away disguised as a step towards. The way out proposed in this project is a with-feeling¸ a sympathetic resonance, an autoerotic encompassment. This means that to touch is not to feel yourself through others, but to feel others through yourself. This essay is also an attempt to embody the methodology it proposes, weaving between theory and testimony to bring out a power of critique and association through the body.
Summary for Lay Audience
The aim of this project is to put our intuitions of love and understanding on trial, instincts and intuitions that have been shaped through a resonant colonial and patriarchal history. The main object of critique in this analysis is empathy: empathy as tragic play, providing an emotional release through its distant indulgence; it is, at every moment, a step away disguised as a step towards. The way out proposed in this project is a with-feeling¸ a sympathetic resonance, an autoerotic encompassment. This means that to touch is not to feel yourself through others, but to feel others through yourself. This project is also an attempt to embody the style of connection it proposes, weaving between theory and testimony to bring out a power of critique and association through the body.
Recommended Citation
Malik, Shakil, "Empathy/Sympathy" (2023). Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository. 9833.
https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/etd/9833
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.