Empathet(H)Ics: Intersubjectivity, Interobjectivity, and (Non)Human Storytellers in Colum Mccann’s Let The Great World Spin

Ada Beleuță

doi:10.24193/mjcst.2021.11.13

Abstract

Tracing some of the inflection points in our conceptualization of empathy, social cognition, intersubjective understanding, and social theories over time, this essay attempts to contextualize and give a possible explanation to the more radical changes determined by the so-called nonhuman turn. Drawing on the theories proposed by Steven Connor, Bill Brown, and Bruno Latour on the relations between human and nonhuman agents, the paper will argue for the inherent potential of things to both exceed the limits of human agency and cognitive capacities (specifically, memory and intersubjective understanding) and foster their expansion. A reading of Colum McCann’s Let the Great World Spin (2009) will emphasize the importance of interobjectivity as a mechanism of augmenting empathy and intersubjective understanding. The polyphony of narrativized memories of loss, mourning, trauma – and even pre-trauma, in their construction of an alternative history to the 9/11 terrorist attacks, uses things to encode, store, and retrieve memories, as well as to facilitate (re)connections with others beyond boundaries of space, time, or death. Thus, the democratic force of storytelling returns to corroborate “a democracy extended to things” (Latour).

Highlights

EMPATHET(H)ICS “On or about September 11, 2001, human character did not change” (Cohen 3)
In an attempt to identify such changes in the conceptualization, as well as the functioning of human cognition, empathy, and ethical systems of the recent past, my research brings together several strands of the nonhuman turn that can shed light on the extents to which human agency and human cognition – in particular, memory and intersubjective understanding – can be both exceeded and extended through relations with objects. It will begin by retracing the gradual shifts in our understanding of empathy as it emerges from the use of metaphors such as putting oneself in another’s shoes, in order to eventually reinforce the commonality between human and nonhuman others by justifying their value as objects of compassion
I will read Colum McCann’s Let the Great World Spin (2009) in the light of these theoretical approaches, and argue that it is an accurate representation for how a conscious delving

Summary

Introduction

EMPATHET(H)ICS “On or about September 11, 2001, human character did not change” (Cohen 3). In an attempt to identify such changes in the conceptualization, as well as the functioning of human cognition, empathy, and ethical systems of the recent past, my research brings together several strands of the nonhuman turn that can shed light on the extents to which human agency and human cognition – in particular, memory and intersubjective understanding – can be both exceeded and extended through relations with objects.

Results

Conclusion