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Part of
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. 97–118

Chapter 5
Into film

Does absorption in a movie’s story world pose a paradox?

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

Most film viewers know the experience of being deeply absorbed in the story of a popular film. It seems that at such moments they lose awareness of watching a movie. And yet it is highly unlikely that they completely ignore the fact that they watch a narrative and technological construction. Perhaps film viewers experience being in a story world while simultaneously being aware of its construction. Such a dual awareness would seem paradoxical, because the experience of the one would go at the cost of the other. We argue that the solution of this paradox requires dropping the notion of an undivided consciousness, and replacing it with one of consciousness as coming in degrees. In this chapter we present both cognitive and film-analytic arguments for differential awareness of story and narration/technology, and argue that a characteristic of absorption is to be found in story world super-consciousness.

Keywords: absorption, transportation, presence, consciousness, attention, narrative, film technology, continuity, visual narrative grammar
Article outline
  • 1.The problem: Dual awareness
  • 2.Consciousness and the experience of film stories
    • 2.1Consciousness and the unitary experience
    • 2.2Degrees of consciousness and dual awareness
  • 3.Why narrative structure escapes consciousness
  • 4.Why story world events occupy consciousness
    • 4.1Interesting events
    • 4.2Development of anticipations
  • 5.How unseen film technology enhances story world experiences
  • 6.A solution: Unitary experience in absorbed film viewing
  • 7.Absorption is a supervised staging of the story world
  • 8.Limitations
  • 9.Conclusion
  • Note
  • References
Published online: 9 November 2017
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/lal.27.06tan
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