Such narrative empathy, it is argued, can underscore an idea of human commonality. This study discusses the translation of David Foster Wallaces Brief Interviews With Hideous Men and the way Wallaces need to communicate with his. By comparing how the second-person pronoun is used both in the collection’s second-person narratives and in a selection of the stories directing imperatives to an intradiegetic narratee, it is investigated how the use of the second-person pronoun can invite the actual reader to empathize with highly unsympathetic characters. A graduate student (Nicholson) copes with a recent breakup by conducting interviews with various men. With Julianne Nicholson, Ben Shenkman, Timothy Hutton, Michael Cerveris. Nearly all of them are talking about sex: what they dream of doing, what they have done and how. Because of this nuanced picture, the collection can be read as an argument for the insufficiency of an approach to empathy as inherently good.įurthermore, it is investigated how the use of the second-person pronoun affects the actual reader’s possibility to experience narrative empathy. Brief Interviews with Hideous Men: Directed by John Krasinski. In 'Brief Interviews with Hideous Men,' Sara (Julianne Nicholson), a graduate student, interviews various men about their sex lives for her thesis, even secretly taping a couple of them. Gradually, under this harsh fluorescent glare, the men emerge, in varying degrees of hideousness. Throughout this analysis, it is demonstrated that Wallace’s collection presents a nuanced picture of different kinds of empathy as well as the less admirable consequences that a capability to empathize can have. Following a discussion of narrative empathy and theory of mind, an analysis of how empathy is portrayed on the diegetic level, i.e. This thesis explores the notion of empathy in David Foster Wallace’s short story collection Brief Interviews with Hideous Men (1999). Brief Interviews with Hideous Men David Foster Wallace 436 Paperback 149 offers from 1.38 Page Product Description John Krasinski of the Office makes his acclaimed directorial debut with this adaptation of the book by David Foster Wallace.

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