The Passionate Muse cover art

The Passionate Muse

Exploring Emotion in Stories

Preview
LIMITED TIME OFFER

3 Months Free

£5.99/mo after 3 months. Cancel monthly.
Get this deal
Offer ends on 15 July 2026 at 11:59 BST.
More purchase options

The Passionate Muse

By: Keith Oatley
Narrated by: Bruce Mann
Get this deal

£5.99/mo after 3 months. Cancel monthly.

Buy Now for £12.07

Buy Now for £12.07

The emotions a character feels - Hamlet's vengefulness when he realizes his uncle has killed his father, Anna Karenina's despair when she feels she can longer sustain her life, Marcel's joy when he tastes a piece of madeleine cake - are vital aspects of the experience of fiction. As Keith Oatley points out, it's not just the emotions of literary characters such as these in which we are interested. If we didn't ourselves experience emotions, we wouldn't go to the play, or watch the film, or read the book.

In The Passionate Muse, Oatley, who is both a prize-winning novelist and a distinguished research psychologist, offers a hybrid book that alternates sections of an original short story, "One Another", with chapters that illuminate the psychology of emotion and fiction. Oatley not only provides insight into how people engage in stories, he also illuminates the value of emotion and the importance of stories for our psychological well-being. Indeed, he offers evidence that the more fiction we read, the better is our understandings of others. Through fiction, we come to know more about the emotions of others and ourselves.

©2012 Keith Oatley (P)2013 Audible, Inc.
Psychology Psychology & Mental Health
adbl_web_anon_alc_button_suppression_t1
No reviews yet