Abstract
Acting as cognitive maps or schemata for each other, the alternating narratives in a novel can help young readers learn how to move beyond the basic reading practice of identifying with a focalized character. Nodelman considers how, in offering an alternative version of what happens, alternating narratives in novels for young people mutually cast doubt on the validity of the perception of the characters focalized in each of them, and thus encourage a more distant and more thoughtful contemplation of characters that might replace an involved identification with just one character with a more distant form of empathy for a number of them.
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Nodelman, P. (2017). Distance Education: The Readerly Effects of Alternating Narratives. In: Alternating Narratives in Fiction for Young Readers. Critical Approaches to Children's Literature. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-50817-7_5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-50817-7_5
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