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Being Mrs Rochester: Empathy in live action role-playing
Malmö University, Joint University Administration and Services.
Malmö University, Faculty of Culture and Society (KS), School of Arts and Communication (K3).
2026 (English)In: Designing Immersive Participatory Practices for Enacting Eco-Social Transformations: Playful Encounters, Recovering Futures / [ed] Ann Light; Harry Lewis, Taylor & Francis, 2026, p. 128-147Chapter in book (Refereed)
Abstract [en]

The chapter analyses live action role-playing (larp) as an immersive, interactive cultural practice that creatively explores empathic relations with a potential for individual and social transformation. The chapter emerges from the authors’ own experiences of Fortune & Felicity, a Jane Austen larp which took place in Sweden in May 2017. Fortune & Felicity, like most larps in the Nordic tradition, was not based on competitive game logics but on experiential and immersive interactions with a focus on players’ emotional, cognitive and embodied engagement, with each other, with the story and with the physical environment. The theoretical frame is Heidi Maibom’s understanding of empathy in her book The Space Between, which takes as its departure empathy’s capacity to give a different perspective on the world and on oneself. Through the lens of Maibom’s argument of empathy, the chapter discusses how larps like Fortune & Felicity, in both design and player action, integrate empathy for character development and the dynamics of interaction. By generating situations and interactions that are remote or even unthinkable in players’ everyday lives, larp can create a sense of understanding and empathy which in turn can allow for a deeper awareness of the situations and precariousness of others.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Taylor & Francis, 2026. p. 128-147
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Studies of Specific Literatures
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URN: urn:nbn:se:mau:diva-87818DOI: 10.4324/9781003660187-7Scopus ID: 2-s2.0-105047242600ISBN: 9781041114819 (print)ISBN: 9781041114802 (print)ISBN: 9781040596081 (electronic)OAI: oai:DiVA.org:mau-87818DiVA, id: diva2:2096603
Available from: 2026-08-31 Created: 2026-08-31 Last updated: 2026-09-01Bibliographically approved

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Bjärstorp, SaraRagnerstam, Petra

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Citation style
  • apa
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  • Other locale
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