Narrative Absorption
Editors
Narrative Absorption brings together research from the social sciences and Humanities to solve a number of mysteries: Most of us will have had those moments, of being totally absorbed in a book, a movie, or computer game. Typically we do not have any idea about how we ended up in such a state. Nor do we fully realize how we might have changed as we return for the fictional worlds we have visited. The feeling of being absorbed is one of the most illusive and transient feelings, but also one that motivates audiences to spend considerable amounts of time in narrative worlds, and one that is central to our understanding of the effects of narratives on beliefs and behavior. Key specialists inform the reader of this book about the nature of the peculiar state of consciousness during episodes of absorption, the perception of absorption in history, the role of absorption in meaningful experiences with narratives, the relation with related phenomena such as suspense and identification, issues of measurement, and the practical implications, for instance in education-entertainment.
Various fields have worked separately on topics of absorption, albeit using different terminology and methods, but having reached a high level of development and complexity in understanding absorption. Now is the time to bring them together. This volume will be a point of reference for years to come.
[Linguistic Approaches to Literature, 27] 2017. ix, 319 pp.
Publishing status: Available
© John Benjamins
Table of Contents
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Acknowledgements | p. ix
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Narrative absorption: Introduction and overview | pp. 1–7
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Part I. Conceptualization of narrative absorption
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Chapter 1. Beyond metaphors and traditions: Exploring the conceptual boundaries of narrative engagementHelena Bilandzic and Rick Busselle | pp. 11–27
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Chapter 2. Towards a new understanding of absorbing reading experiencesMoniek M. Kuijpers, Frank Hakemulder, Katalin Balint, Miruna Doicaru and Ed Tan | pp. 29–47
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Chapter 3. Narrative persuasion: Effects of transporting stories on attitudes, beliefs, and behaviorsKaitlin Fitzgerald and Melanie C. Green | pp. 49–67
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Chapter 4. Immersion into narrative and poetic worlds: A neurocognitive poetics perspectiveArthur M. Jacobs and Jana Lüdtke | pp. 69–96
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Chapter 5. Into film: Does absorption in a movie’s story world pose a paradox?Ed Tan, Miruna M. Doicaru, Frank Hakemulder, Katalin Balint and Moniek M. Kuijpers | pp. 97–118
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Chapter 6. “Spellbound in darkness”: Narrative absorption discussed by film theoryFrank Kessler | pp. 119–131
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Chapter 7. Antecedents of identification: Character, text, and audiencesJonathan Cohen and Nurit Tal-Or | pp. 133–153
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Part II. Empirical studies on narrative absorption
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Chapter 8. Identifying with in-game characters: Exploring player articulations of identification and presenceJasper van Vught and Gareth Schott | pp. 157–175
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Chapter 9. The effect of suspense structure on felt suspense and narrative absorption in literature and filmKatalin Bálint, Moniek M. Kuijpers and Miruna M. Doicaru | pp. 177–197
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Chapter 10. Elaboration, emotion, and transportation: Implications for conceptual analysis and textual featuresPeter Dixon and Marisa Bortolussi | pp. 199–215
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Chapter 11. Forms of absorption that facilitate the aesthetic and explanatory effects of literary readingDon Kuiken and Shawn Douglas | pp. 217–249
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Part III. Outcomes of narrative absorption
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Chapter 12. Absorption and meaningfulness: Examining the relationship between eudaimonic media use and engagementMary Beth Oliver, Arienne Ferchaud, Chun Yang, Yan Huang and Erica Bailey | pp. 253–269
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Chapter 13. The role of absorption processes in narrative health communicationAnneke de Graaf and Lonneke van Leeuwen | pp. 271–292
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Chapter 14. Absorption in narrative fiction and its possible impact on social abilitiesNavona Calarco, Katrina Fong, Marina Rain and Raymond A. Mar | pp. 293–313
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Index | pp. 315–319
“Taken together, Narrative Absorption succeeds in providing conceptual and empirical foundations for theories of absorbing narrative experiences across media and contexts. The strengths of this volume lie clearly in the close collaboration among scholars from different academic backgrounds. So far, literary scholars have frequently been criticized for appropriating scientific models for perhaps unintended uses and seeming unaware of important epistemological devices (Jackson, 2003; Ryan, 2010). The current volume, however, goes beyond metaphorical forms of appropriation of scientific theories through a coherent view of interdisciplinary relations and hands-on engagement with cognitive science itself. It presents an extensive body of research that has studied the different facets of absorbed experiences in the ways they come about and how they may affect the recipients.”
Carina Rasse, Alpen-Adria-Universität Klagenfurt, in Scientific Study of Literature 7:2 (2017)
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This list is based on CrossRef data as of 02 february 2023. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.
Erratum
The volume editors have requested us to add the following rectification to chapter 5.
Subjects & Metadata
Communication Studies
Literature & Literary Studies
BIC Subject: CFG – Semantics, Pragmatics, Discourse Analysis
BISAC Subject: LAN009030 – LANGUAGE ARTS & DISCIPLINES / Linguistics / Pragmatics