Careful dedication to experientiality, as part of the process of literary interpretation, can contribute to better empathy, the basic condition of a more humane society, and at the same time offer a greater degree of pleasure or satisfaction in developing one’s literary ability. Empathy, the ability to understand the emotions, thoughts and actions of another person, enables access to the inner experience of the other person, and at the same time also to knowledge of oneself. Modern research in literary studies pays the most attention to narrative empathy, where the most important researcher, Suzanne Keen, points out as many as three empathies, i.e. textual, reader’s and author’s. Felski and Vernay defend experientiality in this context with various arguments from theorists: the first advocates an emotional approach as a way to increase interest in literature, the second defends it as a fight against dry interpretation and in doing so suggests abandoning impersonal statements, phrases and the majestic plural and imitating the so-called impressionist criticism. At the end of the discussion, I will summarize my suggestions: devote more time to reading and talking about first reading impressions, prepare for the reading aloud, create a special mood for listening to the poem and the dialogic nature of the experience, and in the follow-up questions take into account identification with the poetic self and immersion in the lyrical situation.
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