Simulation of Life: How E-Lit Creates Empathy Main Menu SEPARATION By: Annie Abrahams ENTRE VILLE By: JR Carpenter GALATEA By: Emily Short Works Cited The collective sources used to make this book About the Authors Background information about the brilliant young minds behind this book

Introduction

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Compiled are three unique works of digital literature that all connect users to the personal experiences of others, fostering empathy. Each work encourages us to identify with a certain perception, and a special bond is formed between us and the lives presented on our screens. Through the use of sensory information, the three works place users in the position of their narrators. In Abrahams’ SEPARATION, we are forced to adopt certain physical positions and our reading is manipulated, mirroring the experiences of the pained people described in the poem. In Carpenter’s ENTRE VILLE, we experience the narrator’s memories through a series of fragmented poems, videos, sounds, and drawings, which all overwhelm our senses and make us feel as though we are standing in the middle of the neighborhood with her. In Short's GALATEA, the user is the agent of narration, so each decision has a corresponding outcome. Through the process, the user empathizes with Galatea, a tortured museum statue.

Our approach was to find works that we connected with. We wanted to experience moments of life through someone else's eyes, so we had to find works that placed us into positions of identification and subjectivity. 

We believe that these works will provide crucial insight into the ability to connect with other people, even those whose lives and experiences are very different from ours. This book presents an inside look at unique minds: workers struggling with a physical and psychic disorder, a woman remembering her old neighborhood, and a museum statue come to life. Through interacting with each work's unique mechanics, users are forced to adopt each character's perception of the world.

To navigate the book, click on one of the links below. Each of the three works has its own thread, but these threads are sometimes interlinked due to mechanic or thematic connections.

(BOOK CREATED BY: Brianna Van Zanten, Macin Sheeder, John Dominicos)

This page has paths:

  1. Empathy in Electronic Literature Macin Sheeder

Contents of this path:

  1. SEPARATION
  2. ENTRE VILLE
  3. GALATEA
  4. Works Cited
  5. About the Authors

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