Original scientific paper
https://doi.org/10.15291/csi.4312
Therapeutic Reading of Matoš’s Short Story Camao
Davor Piskač
orcid.org/0000-0003-2507-1799
; University of Zagreb, Faculty of Croatian Studies, Zagreb, Croatia
Abstract
This work aims to show the possibility of using literature for
therapeutic purpose of working with emotions. According to
the principles of symbolic modelling, embedded metaphor
in a literary text is very likely to function as an emotional
metaphor. The aim of the paper is to point out that it may be
possible to connect cognitive therapy settings of the causality
of thoughts, emotions, and actions, i.e., life choices, with
symbolic modelling of metaphors based on the metaphorical
potential of narrative discourse. The above will be shown in
the model of literary bibliotherapy. The theoretical model
is based on the hypothesis that it may be possible to induce
in the reader the process of focused interpretation and understanding
of emotional metaphors of a literary text based
on careful analysis and interpretation of narrative discourse,
and it is also possible to deeply characterize literary characters
in an emotional sense. It represents the possibility that
what the narrative discourse expresses as a thought component,
whether it is expressed by the literary character or the
narrator, is understood as an emotional metaphor according
to the principles of symbolic modelling. Then, according to
the settings of cognitive therapy, the causality of emotions
and events can be determined. Finally, this pattern can be
used as an insight in a therapeutic sense.
It will be attempted to exemplify the results of theoretical
reflection in a therapeutic sense in Matoš’s short story Camao,
with the emphasis on observing the emotional pattern
according to which Kamenski lives: pleasant emotions - unpleasant
emotions and frustration - escape, up to the point
when he falls in love and, for the first time in his life, tries to
oppose escape, but unfortunately, his lifestyle prevents him
from doing so.
Keywords
symbolic modelling; cognitive therapy; literary bibliotherapy; emotions; metaphor
Hrčak ID:
312377
URI
Publication date:
28.12.2023.
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