Emotion and Classical Literature from a Neuroscientific Perspective

This study reexamines the traditional view of emotions as instinctive and irrational reactions, and instead interprets them as cognitively and culturally constructed phenomena grounded in the physical body. Drawing on Lisa Feldman Barrett’s theory of constructed emotion, this paper explains that emotions are not innate or universal, but rather conceptual interpretations of affect formed through the brain’s predictive functions and interoceptive networks. Emotions are thus learned and shaped through experience and conceptual knowledge. In addition, based on Martha Nussbaum’s philosophy of emotion, this study argues that emotions involve cognitive operations such as value judgments and evaluations, and calls into question the dichotomy between emotion and reason. With this theoretical foundation, the works of Park Ji-won and Korean pansori literature are analyzed to demonstrate how classical literature has refined the language of emotion, enabling the social sharing and cultivation of emotional concepts. Emotions are cognitive constructs generated through the interplay of the body, brain, language, and culture, and literature functions as a site for organizing and transmitting such emotions as forms of social practice. By examining the intersection between emotion theory and classical literature, this study seeks to shed new light on the humanistic interpretation of emotion and the educational potential of classical literature in shaping emotional understanding.