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Narrative Absorption
Edited by Frank Hakemulder, Moniek M. Kuijpers, Ed S. Tan, Katalin Bálint and Miruna M. Doicaru
[Linguistic Approaches to Literature 27] 2017
► pp. 29–47

Chapter 2
Towards a new understanding of absorbing reading experiences

| Utrecht University
| Utrecht University
| Utrecht University | University of Augsburg
| University of Amsterdam
| University of Amsterdam | University of Copenhagen

When reading literary narratives, we assume that readers can get absorbed in the story world and in the story’s artifice. Since most absorption research focuses primarily on popular media, virtually no attention has been paid to the possibility that literary devices such as deviation could elicit absorption experiences or that absorption could be aesthetic in nature. This chapter takes an interdisciplinary approach combining insights from media psychology, literary studies, and aesthetics to present a theoretical framework for two different varieties of narrative aesthetic absorption during reading: story world absorption and artifact absorption. We propose that these varieties mirror the distinction made by narratologists between story and discourse and the distinction made by emotion psychologists between F and A emotions.

Keywords: story world absorption, artifact absorption, narrative, literature, reading experience, foregrounding
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Absorption research taxonomy
    • 2.1Story world absorption
  • 3.There is more to a narrative than story world
    • 3.1Foregrounding and absorption
    • 3.2Empirical studies on the relationship between absorption and foregrounding
    • 3.3Introducing artifact absorption
  • 4.Towards a new understanding of narrative aesthetic absorption
    • 4.1“Weaving in and out” of narrative aesthetic absorption
  • 5.Discussion
  • Note
  • References
Published online: 9 November 2017
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/lal.27.03kui
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