감정을 넘어 공감으로 - 독자의 감정적 반응에 주목하는 소설 교육

Abstract

If readers pay attention to their “emotional response,” their behavior of appreciation will become more autonomous. This study is about reading text more accurately and deeply, paying attention to inappropriate emotional responses of readers. A novel is a historical work that often stimulates existing morals and uses these for an objective. A good reading process means that you can sympathize with the feelings of a character in a certain situation; however, some student readers commit “affective fallacy” or emotional reactions that are not fit for the story’s event or subject. An affective fallacy is an obvious indication of misreading that goes beyond the reader’s freedom of accepting work. If readers pay attention to their own emotional response, they could rectify their own reading process and develop an appropriate emotional response. We observed the affective fallacy responses to the characters in “Our Distorted Hero,” by Lee Moon-yeol, which is common among student readers. According to the internal order of the work, it is an affective fallacy if there is no animosity toward “Um Seok-dae” or “his classmates.” While it is usually believed that the individual’s narrative (memory) could have caused the readers to perceive the work incorrectly, an inappropriate emotional response is an obvious indication of misreading. However, if the reader’s emotional reaction itself begins to reflect on the text and the reader’s self, it can facilitate not only desirable appreciation but also develop an autonomous attitude for such appreciation. This is because emotional reactions are more straightforward than cognitive responses, and tend to conform to the internal order of text more than to cognitive responses. Understanding works with honest emotional reactions not only helps perceive information realistically, but also reflects on the reader’s sense of value and gives them the sincerity (deepness) required to rediscover themselves.