Project description
When stories make us uncomfortable
We often turn to stories to better understand others and be more empathetic towards their situation. But what if we cannot empathise with the characters we read about? Supported by the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Action’s programme, the REFEMP project challenges the idea that fiction must create greater understanding. Instead, it argues that failed empathy (when we do not emotionally connect with fictional characters) is a strength, not a flaw. Through reviews of novels, films and video games, REFEMP explores how these moments of disconnection spark deeper reflection on our own beliefs and biases. By redefining failed empathy as a powerful analytical tool, REFEMP is reshaping how we understand storytelling’s role in cultural critique and how fiction can challenge, rather than comfort, its audiences.
Objective
This project challenges the assumption that narrative fiction is valuable because it creates understanding of other people’s experiences and lived realities through empathy. Instead, the project addresses the main hypothesis that failed empathy is a strategically created effect of narrative fiction that activates affective, emotional, and cognitive processes by foregrounding differences between fictional characters and recipients. To date, popular perception frames failures of empathy also as failures of narrative fiction to engage recipients affectively, emotionally, and cognitively. In contrast, this project reframes failed empathy as an invitation to reflect on personal, cultural, and political beliefs, attitudes, and values. The innovation of REFEMP is twofold. First, the project develops a novel methodological approach for studying its multimodal dataset. This dataset consists of 1) a transmedia sample of narrative fiction in literature, graphic novels, films, television shows, and videogames released after the turn of the twenty-first century, and 2) a selected corpus of written online reviews of the primary texts as a shorthand for recipients’ responses to and empathic engagement with characters in narrative fiction. Second, the project is theoretically innovative by making the concept of failed empathy productive as an analytical framework for narrative fiction. The project's objectives are 1) providing a more refined vocabulary for talking about medium-specific possibilities of representation and narration that can facilitate, hinder, or block recipients’ empathic engagement with narrative fiction, and 2) theorizing the cultural effects of failed empathic engagement with narrative fiction based on recipients’ reviews. To this end, REFEMP highlights the value of moments of difference, subversion, or rupture – of being unable to feel with someone else – in narrative fiction to reflect on culturally shared beliefs and worldviews.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
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Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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HORIZON.1.2 - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA)
MAIN PROGRAMME
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Topic(s)
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Funding Scheme
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
HORIZON-TMA-MSCA-PF-EF - HORIZON TMA MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
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Call for proposal
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) HORIZON-MSCA-2024-PF-01
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Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.
9000 Gent
Belgium
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.