Questo saggio intende chiarire come la letteratura possa promuovere un'Etica dell’immaginazione empatica’. I testi letterari illustrano e spesso invitano all’accettazione di valori socialmente condivisi, ma possono anche, altrettanto spesso, tradursi in una sfida alla logica di tali valori, non solo a livello dei personaggi e dei loro comportamenti ma a partire dallo speciale uso del linguaggio e delle strategie narrative messi in atto dallo scrittore. La complessa plurivocita del letterario consente infatti la percezione di soggettivita molto diverse e diviene efficace strumento di resistenza al pregiudizio consentendo un approccio piu approfondito all’esperienza dell’alterita. Queste tesi verranno riprese in riferimento a The Voyage Out di Virginia Woolf. Un’attenzione particolare verra data al divario tra le posizioni del narratore e quelle dei personaggi in quanto strumentale all’empatetica critica woolfiana al colonialismo. 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