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Art as emotional exploration

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 November 2017

Keith Oatley
Keith Oatley*
Affiliation:
Department of Applied Psychology and Human Development, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON M5S 1V6, Canada. keith.oatley@utoronto.ca http://sites.google.com/site/keithoatleyhomepage/
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Abstract

The Roman poet Horace said poetry gives pleasure and instructs. A more informative theory is that poetry and art, in general, are less about pleasure than about exploration of emotions. Literary authors concentrate on negative emotions, seemingly to try and understand them. In two studies, reading literary art enabled the transformation of selfhood, not by being instructed but by people changing in their own ways.

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Type
Open Peer Commentary
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 40 , 2017 , e372
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2017 

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