Passionate Muse

The emotions a character feels--Hamlet''s vengefulness when he realizes his uncle has killed his father, Anna Karenina''s despair when she feels she can longer sustain her life, Marcel''s joy when he tastes a piece of madeleine cake--are vital aspects of the experience of fiction. As Keith Oatley points out, it''s not just the emotions of literary characters such as these in which we are intereste...