Introduction

This chapter endeavors to orient readers to the volume by first situating the collection of essays that follows in relation to current scholarly and popular discourses on empathy, and then outlining the volume’s organization and the focus of each essay. It addresses in brief the nineteenth-century origins and twentieth-century vicissitudes of empathy, and the present ubiquity of the term and related concepts in the early twenty-first century. The essay summaries with which the chapter concludes both preview the volume’s contents and point to larger concerns about the essential role and potential limitations of art in fostering key derivatives of empathy as it is conceived of today including understanding cultural identity; supporting inclusivity; respecting shared and opposing perspectives; and developing sensitivity to issues of gender, race, religion, and physical, emotional, and cognitive differences.