Trapped in the First Person — The Function of Perspective in Media, Neurocognition, and Literary Narrative

Why does third-person narration feel increasingly difficult to inhabit? Reports from younger readers indicate a growing preference for first-person narration, suggesting a shift that extends beyond questions of literary style alone. When perspectives at a distance from the self become harder to sustain, capacities central to imagination, empathy, and social understanding come under pressure. Recent neurocognitive studies of intensive social media use provide empirical support for this concern, showing structural changes in a brain region fundamental to perspective-taking, language, theory of mind, and the sense of self. Long before such findings, philosophers and literary scholars understood language to be constitutive of the emergence of selves, others, and worlds. Through close readings of Coetzee, Duras, and Mann, and by contrasting literary and filmic POV, this discussion shows that literary language functions as a powerful cognitive training ground and infrastructure. Ultimately, this talk argues that the literary imagination can, and must, be carried forward for future generations precisely because of its cognitive nature, which is not bound to the printed codex but open to reconfiguration.

Please join the Department of Comparative Literature for this talk from Dr. Anne Dymek of Harvard University. Dr. Dymek works at the intersection of philosophy of language and mind, literary theory, media theory, and cognitive neuroscience. Her publications include a monograph on Gilles Deleuze’s film semiotics (Le Bord de l’eau, 2015) and a forthcoming book on Hölderlin’s Patmos (Routledge, 2026).