Does Literature Create Empathy?

More on the role of empathy creation in literature, though the author here is arguing that that is not what literature does. Rather, "representative thinking" is what literature does--giving us more points of view to consider rather than time to walk in another person's shoes. I wonder to what degree the metafictional examples given are specifically designed to undermine empathy--which itself doesn't mean literature doesn't create empathy, but perhaps could be interpreted as an admission that it does, so the authors are trying to undermine that very effect. Something worth thinking through.