Pensare con la filosofia e con il cinema. Una riflessione a partire da Roland Barthes

Abstract

This paper adopts a narrative-ethics lens to show how storytelling shapes moral identity. It foregrounds empathy—and ‘negative empathy’—as mechanisms that align us with or
distance us from characters. Focusing on contemporary villains with traumatic backstories, it argues that audiences empathize with suffering yet reject immoral acts; thus villains function as ethical simulators for practicing judgment and responsibility.