Victorian lessons in empathy and difference

Abstract

e l i m i t s o f r e a l i s m / 3 this alterity is not easily achieved, not inherent in human interactions, but rather must be learned.realist novels and paintings show individuals growing into this recognition by learning to appreciate difference: a character, for example, might realize an empathic relationship only after the often difficult process of setting another character free from her preconceived ideas or self-centered readings.realist texts and images further insist through both form and content that while an artwork may represent the process of apprehending the alterity of the other, it cannot provide the reader or viewer a means of achieving that process.The novel and the painting, in other words, cannot function as "other" for the viewer or reader. J. M. W.