The Borders of Empathy in Children’s Fiction

Macarena García-González

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English

Routledge
16 June 2025

Literary theory; Literary studies: general; Children's literature studies: general

Series: Children's Literature and Culture

The Borders of Empathy in Children’s Fiction centres the question of how reading fiction develops our moral imagination and our capacities to think and feel with others. The question is approached with a good dose of scepticism, revising tensions between ethical, aesthetical, and pedagogical dimensions when certain books, films, and other cultural materials are recommended for children. This volume examines how texts addressed to children are meant to assist socioemotional education and whether we put forward adultist assumptions around such conceptualisations of the emotional. The book is organised into nine chapters, with some of them focusing on ""difficult"" themes —such as violence, xenophobia, death, migration, as well as gender and social exclusions— and some others on more general relationships between emotions, media, and education. The chapters combine a textual analysis of recommended cultural materials for children with insights from empirical research and ethnographic approaches to children’s cultures. A common thread throughout the book is the open question about the epistemic injustices in knowing children and childhood and how this may be overcome by shifting our research practices with posthumanist philosophies.

By: Macarena García-González
Imprint: Routledge
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 229mm, Width: 152mm,
ISBN: 9781032854458
ISBN 10: 1032854456
Series: Children's Literature and Culture
Pages: 166
Publication Date: 16 June 2025
Audience: College/higher education , Primary
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Forthcoming

Macarena García-González is Ramón y Cajal Senior Researcher at University Pompeu Fabra University, where she directs the interdisciplinary research group JOVIS, on childhood and youth studies. Her publications include two monographs —Origin Narratives: The Stories We Tell Children about Immigration and International Adoption (2017), and Enseñando a sentir: Repertorios éticos en la ficción infantil (2021)—, as well as several articles and book chapters on children's literature, reading promotion, culture and education. She is the Associate Editor at the Children’s Literature in Education journal.