How I Feel your Pain Lessing’s Mitleid, Goethe’s Anagnorisis, and Fontane’s Quiet Sadism

Abstract

The first model assumes that similarity, be it a given similarity (Lessing) or a spontaneous commonality (Goethe, Iphigenia in Tauris), serves as a medium between people. The second model of realism views empathy as an invocation of the reader as a witness of a narrative scene without relying on identification with a character (Fontane, Effi Briest). The paper ends with a speculation about human empathy in general.