Women's History Month: Empathy Through Literature
On March 18, Regis English professor Lara Narcisi, Ph.D. and Vice Provost Nicki Gonzales, Ph.D., hosted the Good Trouble Conversation: “Radical Empathy in Multicultural Women's Fiction.” Regis’ Good Trouble Conversations started in 2020 as a community forum to discuss pressing social issues for positive social engagement and change.
As the second Good Trouble Conversation during Women’s History Month, this event centered around the evolving conversation about empathy and inclusion in the fields of English and literature, using Lara Narcisi’s recent book, “Radical Empathy in Multicultural Women’s Fiction: From the Library to Liberation.” Her book is the case for empathy, affirming – as Narcisi describes – “that living the lives of others in the way only fiction allows can help inspire us to take action for social justice.”
As storytellers, authors shape narrative and cultural dialogue. In a time of fractious international conversation, Narcisi’s recent book places modern and historical women authors of color in juxtaposition to explore how race, class and gender interact in larger literary conversations.
“My book is about creating conversations, and Nicki Gonzales and I wanted to embody that as well,” Narcisi said. “We were both English majors at Yale who took different paths – and although she became a historian and I became an English professor, storytelling is essential to both of our work.”
Empathy through literature, however, extends beyond the underrepresented. Narcisi argues that imaginative literature constructs new understandings of previously reified social norms and events.
“I use both William Faulkner and Virginia Woolf as reference points for the importance of literary history that goes back into the past,” Narcisi said. “So, while I believe radical empathy is especially important to create a better world for those currently most oppressed, I also believe we need to look back and see what authors like Faulkner have to say about the hardships of living in the rural South, for example.”
As Women’s History Month comes to a close, empathy and curiosity for literature does not have to end. Listed below are six novels written by women authors of color, recommended by Lara Narcisi.
The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts, by Maxine Hong Kingston
The Woman Warrior is a multi-genre novel that blends memoir with Chinese folktale. The unique ambiguity of her narrative shares her unique perspective as a first-generation Chinese American woman.
Purchase The Woman Warrior on Amazon.
Song of Solomon, by Toni Morrison
Morrison’s novel details the life of Macon "Milkman" Dead III, post emancipation in the American South. As an author of color, Morrison explores the modern Black experience and the legacy of slavery in the United States.
Purchase Song of Solomon by Amazon.
Love Medicine, by Louise Erdrich
Love Medicine follows five Ojibwe families living on fictional reservations in Minnesota and North Dakota, spanning six generations. Erdrich’s unique writing style incorporates traditional Native American storytelling narratives, creating a distinctive experience.
Purchase Love Medicine on Amazon.
Dreaming in Cuban, by Cristina Garcia
The first novel written by Garcia, follows three generations of a family in Cuba and the United States, focusing heavily on a woman, Celia del Pino, and her daughters. The novel confronts family relationships and memory, through historical elements of Cuban identity and culture.
Purchase Dreaming in Cuban on Amazon.
Woman of Light, by Kali-Fajardo Anstine
Denver native and Chicana author, Anstine’s novel details the love, loss and hardship of five generations of an Indigenous Chicano family in Denver and the American West. Luz "Little Light" Lopez retraces her family’s history, and fights to preserve their cultural memory.
Purchase Woman of Light on Amazon.
Our Missing Hearts, by Celeste Ng
In a dystopian America, twelve-year-old Bird Gardner’s mother, a Chinese-American poet whose works have been censored is missing. As an adult, Bird is forced to retrace his lineage as he is called to search for his missing mother.
Purchase Our Missing Hearts on Amazon.