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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. 199–215

Chapter 10
Elaboration, emotion, and transportation

Implications for conceptual analysis and textual features

| University of Alberta
| University of Alberta

A central component of absorption is the compelling metaphor of “transportation into the story world.” Here, we considered four variables related to transportation and absorption more generally: evoked realism, emotional response, and personal memories as well as transportation. We collected data on these variables from a large crowd-sourced survey of readers’ reactions to their most recently read novel. To provide insight into the causal relations among these variables, we identified the best-fitting structural equation model for these data. The model indicated that transportation was a function of emotional responses, and emotional responses were a function of both evoked realism and personal memories. This analysis was interpreted in terms of the cognitive process of story world elaboration.

Keywords: emotion, elaboration, transportation, structural equation modeling, memory, crowd-sourced survey
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Components of absorption
    • 2.1Transportation
    • 2.2Evoked realism
    • 2.3Emotional responses
    • 2.4Personal memories
  • 3.Evidence on functional relations
  • 4.Method
    • 4.1Materials
    • 4.2Respondents
    • 4.3Analysis
  • 5.Results
  • 6.Discussion
    • 6.1The role of elaboration
    • 6.2Textual features for absorption
    • 6.3Concluding remarks
  • References
Published online: 9 November 2017
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/lal.27.11dix
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Cited by

Cited by 3 other publications

de Graaf, Anneke
2023. The role of identification and self-referencing in narrative persuasion. Communications 48:2 ► pp. 163 ff. DOI logo
Panagiotidou, Maria-Eirini
2022. Transposition: Cognitive Facets of the Ekphrastic Experience. In The Poetics of Ekphrasis, ► pp. 139 ff. DOI logo
Ready, Jonathan L.
2023. Immersion, Identification, and the Iliad, DOI logo

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