Immersion and Empathy

Abstract

AbstractThe aim of this chapter is to investigate histospheres as multi-immersive perceptual spaces that not only model a historical world but also profoundly influence our conceptions and interpretations of history. In this context, the first section examines the role of aesthetically modeled atmospheres and the moods they evoke. The second section builds on this examination by considering filmic space. Filmic atmospheres and spatial figurations of movement bring us physically and mentally closer to the action of the film. Another potent mechanism of perspectivation is film characters, and so the third section focuses on imaginative empathy with the characters who inhabit a film’s historical world. In combination with film experience as a mode of embodied perception, this inner perspective provokes interpretations and evaluations that we can extend to the filmic depiction’s historical references.