The Rhetoric of Emotion, with a Note on What Makes Great Literature Great

Abstract

Art and literature appeal to the emotions as well as to the intellect. The nature of that appeal, is not well understood; this is due, in part, to the fact that the emotions themselves are not well understood. Great literature, it is sometimes suggested, appeals to emotions that are basic to human nature. An alternative suggestion is that great literature refines, stretches, and ultimately transforms the emotions. These suggestions reflect two very different views of emotion: according to the first view, emotions…at least the so-called “basic” emotions…are innate responses that “in essence” remain invariant across time and culture; according to the second view, emotions are subject to creative change…fundamentally, not just in their outward expression. In this article, I present arguments in favor of the second view, and I propose that great literature challenges us to be creative in the emotional as in the intellectual domain…indeed, that these two domains of creativity are not distinct. Several sources of data attest to the ability of people to be emotionally creative; the present analysis focuses on the on-line construction (microgenesis) of emotional episodes, drawing on insights from the study of rhetoric.