ABSTRACT
Most of us intuitively understand that attentive listening to other people’s stories is an act of empathy. We also understand that when we read stories, whether they are fiction, non-fiction, or memoir, we engage in not only our imagined worlds of drama, romance, adventure, and so on, but also the affective worlds of fear, joy, love, horror, curiosity, hope – indeed the whole gamut of human emotions. Narratology, the theory and study of narratives, is well established and helps us to understand the interactions between the writer, the written text, and the reader. It also serves as a companion to a certain kind of knowledge, that which results from a person’s insider viewpoint of events or issues, either as a witness or as a participant who has the lived experience of those particular events or issues.
