Therapeutic Reading of Matoš’s Short Story Camao

Abstract

This work aims to show the possibility of using literature for therapeutic purpose of working with emotions. According to the principles of symbolic modelling, embedded metaphor in a literary text is very likely to function as an emotional metaphor. The aim of the paper is to point out that it may be possible to connect cognitive therapy settings of the causality of thoughts, emotions, and actions, i.e., life choices, with symbolic modelling of metaphors based on the metaphorical potential of narrative discourse. The above will be shown in the model of literary bibliotherapy. The theoretical model is based on the hypothesis that it may be possible to induce in the reader the process of focused interpretation and understanding of emotional metaphors of a literary text based on careful analysis and interpretation of narrative discourse, and it is also possible to deeply characterize literary characters in an emotional sense. It represents the possibility that what the narrative discourse expresses as a thought component, whether it is expressed by the literary character or the narrator, is understood as an emotional metaphor according to the principles of symbolic modelling. Then, according to the settings of cognitive therapy, the causality of emotions and events can be determined. Finally, this pattern can be used as an insight in a therapeutic sense.

It will be attempted to exemplify the results of theoretical reflection in a therapeutic sense in Matoš's short story Camao, with the emphasis on observing the emotional pattern according to which Kamenski lives: pleasant emotions - unpleasant emotions and frustration - escape, up to the point when he falls in love and, for the first time in his life, tries to oppose escape, but unfortunately, his lifestyle prevents him from doing so.