ABSTRACT

The cognitive potentials of creative nonfiction in achieving narrative empathic engagement have not received due attention from previous researchers. Therefore, this study aims at exploring the literary attributes and narrative elements which render creative nonfiction as effective as fiction in the promotion of the reader’s empathic response. Drawing on implications from narrative theory and cognitive studies, it stresses how the inherent constituents of creative nonfiction, merging true stories into a literary template, process in guaranteeing profound empathic engagement with the text. This paper also includes a comparative study, analysing two creative nonfiction works, Zimbardo’s The Lucifer Effect and Danner’s Torture and Truth, and revealing how the potentials of CNF enable the two writers to utilise literary devices in an empathetically appealing narrative and tackle the same true human issue from different perspectives.

摘要

创造性非小说在实现叙事移情参与方面的认知潜力尚未得到先前研究人员的应有关注。因此，本研究旨在探索使非虚构创作在促进读者的移情反应方面与小说一样有效的文学属性和叙事元素。借鉴叙事理论和认知研究的启示，它强调创造性非小说的内在成分，将真实故事融入文学模板，如何保证与文本的深刻移情参与。本文还包括一项比较研究，分析了津巴多的《路西法效应》和丹纳的《酷刑与真相》两部创意非虚构作品，并揭示 CNF 的潜力如何使两位作家能够在富有同情心的叙事中利用文学手段，并从不同的角度解决相同的真实人类问题。