The course aims to provide a theoretical overview of the mechanisms of 'empathy' and reader identification with extremely negative characters in literature. There are many narratives in literature of all times that feature characters who are guilty of horrific crimes as protagonists. Since it is not possible to analyse them all, we have chosen to focus on some contemporary narratives that enter into the mind of the 'monster', understood as an individual who has been guilty of very serious crimes, in order to explore the shadow sides and the most disturbing phenomenologies of the human psyche. The concept of the 'return of the repressed' theorised by Francesco Orlando and that of 'negative empathy' recently developed by Fusillo and Ercolino will be used as hermeneutic tools. In the second part of the course, excerpts from some contemporary American, Italian and French narratives will be read and analysed in class.