Toward Intercultural Narrative Competence: Cultural Studies and Narrative Medicine for Affective Engagement and Care. A Higher-Education Pilot Project

The purpose of this paper is to explore the role of aesthetic reading and affective engagement with works of art and, more broadly, with stories of others in generating intersubjective encounters and other-oriented care. It also aims to illustrate a higher-education pilot project whose objective is to exploit the affective and intersubjective potential in artistic expression and in sharing stories. Firstly, we will address the issues of affect and care, focusing on how the sharing of stories—through cultural texts and intersubjective dialogue—can elicit affective responses and foster processes of care. Then, we will provide an empirical example of a higher education intervention, which integrates a literature module grounded in Cultural and Postcolonial Studies with a workshop embedded in Narrative Medicine, with the aim of strengthening what we define as ‘intercultural narrative competence’.