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<p>The Booker Prize-winning novel <i>The Sea</i> (2005) features the Irish writer John Banville employing experimental storytelling to convey the protagonist-narrator Max’s affective stories. The striking contrast among critics’ responses to the novel necessitates an in-depth examination of the potential factors underlying readers’ diverse responses. While narratologists have focused on the affective responses of either ideal readers or actual readers, insufficient attention has been given to the distinction and connection between the narrative audience, authorial audience, and actual readers. This article explores these types of readers’ affective responses to Max’s affective memories and Banville’s narrative strategies, using a theoretical approach combining narratology and affect studies. Drawing on the theories of readers’ affective responses, narrative empathy, and aesthetic empathy, it investigates how the ideal readers and actual readers (critics and readers on Goodreads) empathize with Max and Banville cognitively, affectively, and aesthetically. I argue that aesthetic empathy, coupled with narrative empathy, facilitates the actual readers to experience heightened empathetic responses towards the artistic work through appreciation of its craft, despite that the “empathy gap” might hinder them from empathizing with Max and Banville to the same extent as ideal readers. By considering distinct reader types and various forms of empathy, this article elucidates how literature elicits readers’ affective responses through narrative empathy and aesthetic empathy, thereby contributing to a deeper understanding of the interplay among narrative strategies, empathy, and their affective engagement in <i>The Sea</i>.</p>

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Distinction and connection between three types of readers: readers’ affective responses and empathy in John Banville’s The sea

  • 期刊论文

  • 发表日期：

    2025年10月15日

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  • Zengxin Ni

摘要

The Booker Prize-winning novel The Sea (2005) features the Irish writer John Banville employing experimental storytelling to convey the protagonist-narrator Max’s affective stories. The striking contrast among critics’ responses to the novel necessitates an in-depth examination of the potential factors underlying readers’ diverse responses. While narratologists have focused on the affective responses of either ideal readers or actual readers, insufficient attention has been given to the distinction and connection between the narrative audience, authorial audience, and actual readers. This article explores these types of readers’ affective responses to Max’s affective memories and Banville’s narrative strategies, using a theoretical approach combining narratology and affect studies. Drawing on the theories of readers’ affective responses, narrative empathy, and aesthetic empathy, it investigates how the ideal readers and actual readers (critics and readers on Goodreads) empathize with Max and Banville cognitively, affectively, and aesthetically. I argue that aesthetic empathy, coupled with narrative empathy, facilitates the actual readers to experience heightened empathetic responses towards the artistic work through appreciation of its craft, despite that the “empathy gap” might hinder them from empathizing with Max and Banville to the same extent as ideal readers. By considering distinct reader types and various forms of empathy, this article elucidates how literature elicits readers’ affective responses through narrative empathy and aesthetic empathy, thereby contributing to a deeper understanding of the interplay among narrative strategies, empathy, and their affective engagement in The Sea.