Vicarious Narratives

Adam Smith's Theory of Moral Sentiments (1759) defines sympathy as a series of shifts in perspective by which one sees from a different point of view. British and French novels published over the following century redefine sympathy through narrative form-shifting perspectives or 'stories within stories' in which one character adopts the voice and perspective of another. Fiction follows Smith's emphasis on sympathy's shifting perspectives, but this formal echo coincides with a challenge. For Smith and other Enlightenment philosophers, the experience of sympathy relies on human resemblance. In…