ABSTRACT
Across cultures, humans create fictional worlds. Storytelling is a cross-cultural phenomenon, taking various forms, such as narrative dances that act out passages of the Rāmāyaṇa and Mahābhārata, Latin American telenovelas, recitations by West African griots (troubadours) accompanied by a kora (twenty-one-string lute), and intricate Russian novels. Narratives elicit emotions. Like with other artworks, some of these emotions are evaluative, directed at the artwork as artwork. We may find a story beautiful, intriguing, exhilarating, or merely bland, predictable, or boring. Other emotions are directed at elements within the narrative, such as empathy with its characters. Chekhov’s play Uncle Vanya elicits empathy for Vanya and Sonya. When king Stannis Baratheon sacrificed his only daughter Shireen to ask for divine help in battle, viewers of the HBO show Game of Thrones watched in horror how the girl pleaded in vain to be spared.
