56 pages 1 hour read

Leslie Jamison

The Empathy Exams

Nonfiction | Essay Collection | Adult | Published in 2014

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Essay Topics

1.

In several essays, Jamison uses the second-person perspective (you/yours) instead of the first (I/me) or third (she/he/they). Choose one of these instances and explain why she makes this choice. How does it impact the reader? How does it impact the story she is telling?

2.

In the essay “Grand Unified Theory of Female Pain,” Jamison describes 13 “wounds.” Why did she include these wounds? Is there significance in her choice to include 13 of them?

3.

Over the course of The Empathy Exams, Jamison discusses both the intensity of her emotions and her hate for sentimentality. She, at intervals, attempts to come to terms with her own feelings about sentiment and melodrama. Does she come to a conclusion at the end of the collection? How does Jamison feel about emotions?