Theatres of emotion - a cognitive reading of Leopold bloom in the 'Sirens' episode of Ulysses

The terms 'emotion' and 'feeling' are often used synonymously within literary studies. This equivalence is traceable back through popular lexicon, taking root in definitions that simply transpose meaning. 'Feeling' is defined as: 'An emotional appreciation' or 'emotional attitude'; and 'Emotion' is defined as: 'Any strong mental or instinctive feeling'. A perpetual loop unfurls, circulating from feeling as emotion, back to emotion as feeling. Literary critics tackle these terms using a vocabulary which endlessly entangles itself through interdependent definitions. Critics committed to disentangling these terms may learn through etymology that early use of the term 'emotion' aligns more accurately with the word 'movement'-since 'emotion' comes from the Latin verb emovere, which literally means 'outward movement'. This constitutes a step in the right direction. However, as this article will demonstrate, to accurately redefine and re-demonstrate how character 'emotion' and 'feeling' are treated in literary works we need to extend our investigatory strategies further still.