”Mitt hjerta var i Malin.”

Förmedling och förvandling i Fredrika Bremers Grannarne (1837)

Abstract

”My heart was with Malin”: Mediation and Transformation in Fredrika Bremer’s The Neighbours.

This article focuses on a scene in Fredrika Bremer’s 1837 novel, Grannarne (The Neighbours), investigating the relationship between reading aloud and empathy established in this work. It discusses the characters’ varied responses to the shared reading experience, utilising reception theory. In a follow-up discussion, I examine the feasibility of using newer theories concerning narrative empathy. Fritz Breithaupt’s theory is of particular interest since he suggests that second-level observation (and thus placing oneself in another person’s perspective) is central to the experience of empathy. Finally, I consider the emotional responses of the characters in relation to melodrama in Bremer’s work.