How To Create Ecstatic Space: Zones of Care in the Films The Secret Garden and Amelie, in the Video Game Wrath of the White Witch, and Beyond

Abstract

This chapter completes three related investigations. First revisits the proposal that our three aesthetic forms of Dispassionate, Dramatic and Dantean space are also it proposes that our three aesthetic forms are emotive stances towards the world as well as forms of political and ethical culture. Second, in a bid to escape Dantean space as the horizon of empathetic space, it proposes a close study of Ecstatic narratives like Amelie and The Secret Garden which have a unique ability to empathetically enfold others into spaces where they connect with the protagonist and with each other on a positive emotional and social level. Finally, this book has treated Guilt and Bitterness as different cognitive stances and forms of discernment towards the world, arguing that each determines an approach to relationships, morality and possibility. Now we examine the obscure and complex form of discernment of the Innocent, tracing this figure through a history of representations and exposing its potential as a social force and as a unique empathetic agent in narrative and space. And while Dantean space has often tied empathy to guilt and bitterness, the fresh perspective of Ecstatic space opens up the ignored and complex possibilities of the Innocent for the next generation of storytellers.