Books and Empathy

There have been several claims made in recent years about the power of empathy, and how reading classic fiction can increase empathy. The mechanism is not well known, but I think the idea behind it is that a classic book contains complexity of layered characters, all of whom have multi-factored perspectives that have a bearing on the characters' actions. Like all works of art, fiction requires an extension of a person's imagination to be able to reach into the character and imaginatively frame what that character is going through. Thus, it stands to reason that a person learns empathy by getting a first hand understanding of how a character operates in the universe of the story or novel.
  I don't think that reading novels necessarily automatically makes a person empathetic to the narrative, because there are simply many different ways of reading a text. It's impossible to tell whether or not a text is really being read with the intention to cultivate empathy, or whether it's really an attempt to cement a reader's preconceptions or favorite ideas surrounding a specific novel. This all depends on the reader's personality and intentions. A second point is that empathy often requires guidance and direction. To truly empathize with a text, for example, may require a way of thinking about characters and their situations that is not automatically assumed simply by opening a book. Empathy itself, being a socially constructed emotion, often needs framing and scaffolding to take effect.
 I would like to design more structure around teaching empathy in classrooms. It's definitely not an easy thing to do, but I do think that empathy needs pedagogy. It is not acquired simply by having students read dense pieces of literature. I think that in order for empathy to happen, there needs to be a cycle of empathy around the teacher, text and student. At the very least, a culture of empathy is needed.