Empathy for Social Justice: The Case of Malala Yousafzai

Ana Belén Martínez García

doi:10.18172/jes.3540

Authors

Ana Belén Martínez García University of Navarra http://orcid.org/0000-0002-7494-6670

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.18172/jes.3540

Keywords:

Malala Yousafzai, empathy, human rights, autobiography, blog, narrative

Abstract

This essay demonstrates the effectiveness of human rights life narratives in garnering global support through their appeal to empathy. I focus on Nobel Peace Prize winner Malala Yousafzai’s autobiographical texts and their impact on lives outside the written pages, which is first and foremost of an empathic nature. The essay pays special attention to her childhood blog and her teenage autobiography, looking at the narrative strategies employed in both. Autobiographical texts are never neutral, enabling people to see themselves under a new light, spurring them to act. The delicate balance between witnessing and involvement hangs on the creation of an emotional bond.

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Author Biography

Ana Belén Martínez García, University of Navarra

Dr. Martínez García is PhD Assistant Professor in the English Department of ISSA - School of Management Assistants at the University of Navarra and belongs to GRINEA (Research Group on Autobiography Studies) and the Emotional Culture and Identity project at the Institute for Culture and Society.

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