[Commlist] New book: The Empathy Paradox

Announcing a new publication from The University of South Carolina Press :

*The Empathy Paradox*

Rhetoric, Media, and the Trouble with Identification

*Rachel McCabe*

https://mngbookshop.co.uk/9781643366920/the-empathy-paradox/ 
<https://mngbookshop.co.uk/9781643366920/the-empathy-paradox/>

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*20% Discount code*: LSFMNGUP*

*Valid until 11:59 GMT, 30^th  June 2027. Discount only applies to the 
MNG website.

Empathy has traditionally been understood as a bridge between the self 
and others. In composition studies, it is traditionally used as a 
foundation for effective reading, allowing students to connect with 
authors, characters, and ideas. In the era of social media apologies and 
self-help advice, empathy is now often conceptualized as a tool for 
individual validation that promotes personal gain over relational depth. 
Overidentification, Rachel McCabe argues, can lead to the erasure of 
differences in others' lived experiences and complicating details in texts.

In/ The Empathy Paradox,/ Rachel McCabe analyzes the evolving role of 
empathy in contemporary media, film, literature, and culture. She 
advocates for a critical understanding of it, asking what happens when 
readers and viewers directly consider the complex ways that empathy 
guides their understanding and assessment of the culture they consume. 
By developing an awareness of our assumptions, she adds, we can avoid 
the pitfalls of self-interest and overidentification and develop more 
constructive applications of empathy that will help us become better 
readers and writers.

*Rachel McCabe* is associate professor and director of the writing 
program at La Salle University. She is coeditor of /Composition & 
Rhetoric in Contentious Times./

*The University of South Carolina Press | 31 August 2026 | 206pp | 
9781643366920 | PB | £24.99**

*Price subject to change.
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