Anezka Kuzmicova | Charles University, Prague (original) (raw)
Articles by Anezka Kuzmicova
Literacy, 2022
Literacy research and practice are invigorated by evidence that stories enhance empathy and conce... more Literacy research and practice are invigorated by evidence that stories enhance empathy and concentration. Both benefits are associated with attending to inner sensory states afforded by stories. Yet children are rarely asked about how stories, steeped as they are in characters' bodily actions, affect them in bodily terms. We have conducted a qualitative study inviting 9- to 12-year-olds (N = 19) to share their embodied story experiences. To this end, we developed a toolkit of story excerpts and activities supported with bespoke props that can be adopted in research but also in classrooms and other practice. The toolkit was tested in school-based focus groups (accompanied by in-class observations) and home-based individual interviews. We introduce the toolkit and discuss some of the key prerequisites of its use. Further, we present three main types of embodiment statements provided by our participants: what-statements about the trigger of one's embodied experience, how-statements about the sensory or motor quality of the experience and what-and-how statements combining both aspects. We consider the distinct potentials of these statement types for fostering children's embodied self-awareness and story awareness in educational settings and beyond.
Cambridge Journal of Education, 2021
Fiction, more than expository text, nurtures intimate connections between text and the reader’s l... more Fiction, more than expository text, nurtures intimate connections between text and the reader’s life experiences. This dimension of reader response is underexplored in relation to children. Adapting methods from Empirical Literary Studies to educational research objectives, we employed the concept of ‘remindings,’ i.e. reminiscing prompted by text, in studying children’s life-resonant responses to self-selected leisure books. Six workshops were run in primary classrooms during which participants (N = 148; age 8–11) engaged in remindings and mental imagery. Written remindings were then analysed for systematic variation across fiction book genres (Real-world vs. Fantasy; Relationships vs. Adventure). We found that Real-World Adventure books prompted remindings of discrete life events, while Real-World Relationships books prompted remindings of more diffuse experiences. Fantasy Adventure books were the least likely to prompt remindings. Further genre-based differences emerged in the distribution of themes within remindings. We consider the consequences of these insights for supporting young readers.
Dosier CERLALC - Ecosistema del libro: Lectura en papel vs. lectura en pantalla, 2020
La disminución de la materialidad en el tránsito de la lectura impresa a la lectura en pantalla ¿... more La disminución de la materialidad en el tránsito de la lectura impresa a la lectura en pantalla ¿Ofrece lo impreso anclajes para la memoria que desaparecen en la pantalla? ¿De qué modo elementos externos y materiales influyen en la lectura y la recordación?
Journal of Eye Movement Research, 2020
Based on Kuzmičová’s (2014) phenomenological typology of narrative styles, we studied the specifi... more Based on Kuzmičová’s (2014) phenomenological typology of narrative styles, we studied the specific contributions of mental imagery to literary reading experience and to reading behavior by combining questionnaires with eye-tracking methodology. Specifically, we focused on the two main categories in Kuzmičová’s (2014) typology, i.e., texts dominated by an “enactive” style, and texts dominated by a “descriptive” style. “Enactive” style texts render characters interacting with their environment, and “descriptive” style texts render environments dissociated from human action. The quantitative analyses of word category distributions of two dominantly enactive and two dominantly descriptive texts indicated significant differences especially in the number of verbs, with more verbs in enactment compared to descriptive texts. In a second study, participants read two texts (one theoretically cueing descriptive imagery, the other cueing enactment imagery) while their eye movements were recorded. After reading, participants completed questionnaires assessing aspects of the reading experience generally, as well as their text-elicited mental imagery specifically. Results show that readers experienced more difficulties conjuring up mental images during reading descriptive style texts and that longer fixation duration on words were associated with enactive style text. We propose that enactive style involves more imagery processes which can be reflected in eye movement behavior.
![Research paper thumbnail of Kuzmičová, A. (2020): Consciousness [pp. 1–3 of 15]](https://attachments.academia-assets.com/56340330/thumbnails/1.jpg)
](Rubery, M., & L. Price (eds.): Further Reading (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2020), 2020
This chapter revisits three common ideas about how consciousness works when we read fiction. Firs... more This chapter revisits three common ideas about how consciousness works when we read fiction. Firstly, I contest the notion that the reading consciousness is a container of sorts, containing a circumscribed amount of textual stimulus. Secondly, I argue against the view that readers abstract their personal concerns away in reading, and that they do so with benefit. Thirdly, I show how the reading consciousness encompasses rather than excludes the physical situation and environment of reading. For each idea revisited, I discuss practical implications for how reading could be taught, assessed, and staged in educational settings.
Poetics Today, 2019
Although personal relevance is key to sustaining an audience’s interest in any given narrative, i... more Although personal relevance is key to sustaining an audience’s interest in any given narrative, it has received little systematic attention in scholarship to date. Across centuries and media, adaptations have been used extensively to bring temporally or geographically distant narratives “closer” to the recipient under the assumption that their impact will increase. In this review article, we review experimental and other empirical evidence on narrative processing in order to unravel which types of personal relevance are more likely to be impactful than others, which types of impact (e.g. aesthetic, therapeutic, persuasive) they have been found to generate, and where their power becomes excessive or outright detrimental to reader experience.
Participations, 2019
This article reports key findings from a quantitative online survey of everyday reading practices... more This article reports key findings from a quantitative online survey of everyday reading practices (N = 277) that targeted library professionals and students enrolled in an Information Science program in Denmark. The survey derived its rationale from the current upsurge in reading on smartphones but was constructed so as to give a comprehensive overview of all devices used for reading, as well as to map how these devices combine in respondents' reading behaviour with specific text genres and physical environments. The data documents a highly diversified reading ecology where most genres are read on most devices and where readers' choices and preferences vary with gender, age, and life situation. The clearest patterns emerge among female respondents (N = 221; M age = 39; range 19-65) who fall into distinct reader/user groups according to age. Most importantly, we found the variety of digital devices used for reading to increase rather than decrease with age, contrary tocommon assumptions. Meanwhile, the youngest of the female respondents seem to read in the greatest variety of environments, and to make the least use of printed reading materials.
First Monday, 2018
The shift from print to screen has bodily effects on how we read. We distinguish two dimensions o... more The shift from print to screen has bodily effects on how we read. We distinguish two dimensions of embodied reading: the spatio-temporal and the imaginary. The former relates to what the body does during the act of reading and the latter relates to the role of the body in the imagined scenarios we create from what we read. At the level of neurons, these two dimensions are related to how we make sense of the world. From this perspective, we explain how the bodily activity of reading changes from print to screen. Our focus is on the decreased material anchoring of memories.
Convergence: The International Journal of Research into New Media Technology, 2020
Mobile phones are reportedly the most rapidly expanding e-reading device worldwide. However, the ... more Mobile phones are reportedly the most rapidly expanding e-reading device worldwide. However, the embodied, cognitive, and affective implications of smartphone-supported fiction reading for leisure (m-reading) have yet to be investigated empirically. Revisiting the theoretical work of digitization scholar Anne Mangen, we argue that the digital reading experience is not only contingent on patterns of embodied reader-device interaction (Mangen 2008 and later), but also embedded in the immediate environment and broader situational context. We call this the situation constraint. Its application to Mangen's general framework enables us to identify four novel research areas wherein m-reading should be investigated with regard to its unique affordances. The areas are reader-device affectivity, situated embodiment, attention training, and long-term immersion.
The Journal of General Psychology, 2018
Word frequency is one of the most robust factors in the literature on word processing, based on t... more Word frequency is one of the most robust factors in the literature on word processing, based on the lexical corpus of a language. However, different sources might be used in order to determine the actual frequency of each word. Recent research has determined frequencies based on movie subtitles, Twitter, blog posts, or newspapers. In this paper, we examine a determination of these frequencies based on the World Wide Web. For this purpose, a Python script was developed to obtain frequencies of a word through online search results. These frequencies were employed to estimate lexical decision times in comparison to the traditional frequencies in a lexical decision task. It was found that the Google frequencies predict reaction times comparably to the traditional frequencies. Still, the explained variance was higher for the traditional database.
![Research paper thumbnail of Kuzmičová, A., Dias, P., Vogrinčič Čepič, A., Albrechtslund, A.-M., Casado, A., Kotrla Topić, M., Mínguez López, X., Nilsson, S. K., & Teixeira-Botelho, I. (2018): Reading and company: Embodiment and social space in silent reading practices [pp. 1-4 of 28]](https://attachments.academia-assets.com/54383960/thumbnails/1.jpg)
](Literacy, 2018
Reading, even when silent and individual, is a social phenomenon and has often been studied as su... more Reading, even when silent and individual, is a social phenomenon and has often been studied as such. Complementary to this view, research has begun to explore how reading is embodied beyond simply being ‘wired’ in the brain. This article brings the social and embodied perspectives together in a very literal sense. Reporting a qualitative study of reading practices across student focus groups from six European countries, it identifies an underexplored factor in reading behaviour and experience. This factor is the sheer physical presence, and concurrent activity, of other people in the environment where one engages in individual silent reading. The primary goal of the study was to explore the role and possible associations of a number of variables (text type, purpose, device) in selecting generic (e.g. indoors vs outdoors) as well as specific (e.g. home vs library) reading environments. Across all six samples included in the study, participants spontaneously attested to varied, and partly surprising, forms of sensitivity to company and social space in their daily efforts to align body with mind for reading. The article reports these emergent trends and discusses their potential implications for research and practice.
Language and Literature, 2017
Several quantitative studies (e.g. Kidd & Castano, 2013a; Djikic et al., 2013) have shown a posit... more Several quantitative studies (e.g. Kidd & Castano, 2013a; Djikic et al., 2013) have shown a positive correlation between literary reading and empathy. However, the literary nature of the stimuli used in these studies has not been defined at a more detailed, stylistic level. In order to explore the stylistic underpinnings of the hypothesized link between literariness and empathy, we conducted a qualitative experiment in which the degree of stylistic foregrounding was manipulated. Subjects (N = 37) read versions of Katherine Mansfield's 'The Fly', a short story rich in foregrounding, while marking striking and evocative passages of their choosing. Afterwards, they were asked to select three markings and elaborate on their experiences in writing. One group read the original story, while the other read a 'non-literary' version, produced by an established author of suspense fiction for young adults, where stylistic foregrounding was reduced. We found that the non-literary version elicited significantly more (p < 0.01) explicitly empathic responses than the original story. This finding stands in contradiction to widely accepted assumptions in recent research, but can be assimilated in alternative models of literariness and affect in literary reading (e.g. Cupchik et al., 1998). We present an analysis of the data with a view to offering more than one interpretation of the observed effects of stylistic foregrounding.
Scientific Study of Literature, 2016
The objective of this article is to review extant empirical studies of empathy in narrative readi... more The objective of this article is to review extant empirical studies of empathy in narrative reading in light of (i) contemporary literary theory, and (ii) neuroscientific studies of empathy, and to discuss how a closer interplay between neuroscience and literary studies may enhance our understanding of empathy in narrative reading. An introduction to some of the philosophical roots of empathy is followed by tracing its application in contemporary literary theory, in which scholars have pursued empathy with varying degrees of conceptual precision, often within the context of embodied/enactive cognition. The presentation of empirical literary studies of empathy is subsequently contextualized by an overview of psychological and neuroscientific aspects of empathy. Highlighting points of convergence and divergence, the discussion illustrates how findings of empirical literary studies align with recent neuroscientific research. The article concludes with some prospects for future empirical research, suggesting that digitization may contribute to advancing the scientific knowledge of empathy in narrative reading.
Communication Theory, 2016
While language use in general is currently being explored as essentially situated in immediate ph... more While language use in general is currently being explored as essentially situated in immediate physical environment, narrative reading is primarily regarded as a means of decoupling one’s consciousness from the environment. In order to offer a more diversified view of narrative reading, the article distinguishes between three different roles the environment can play in the reading experience. Next to the traditional notion that environmental stimuli disrupt attention, the article proposes that they can also serve as a prop for mental imagery and/or a locus of pleasure more generally. The latter two perspectives presuppose a more clear-cut distinction between consciousness and attention than typically assumed in the communication literature. The article concludes with a list of implications for research and practice.
Mildorf, J., & T. Kinzel (eds.) Audionarratology: Interfaces of Sound and Narrative, 2016
Comparisons between audiobook listening and print reading often boil down to the fact that audiob... more Comparisons between audiobook listening and print reading often boil down to the fact that audiobooks impose limitations on the recipient’s continuous in-depth reflection. As a result, audiobook listening is considered a shallow alternative to reading. This chapter critically revisits the following three intuitions commonly associated with such comparisons: 1) Audiobooks elicit more mental imagery than print. 2) Audiobooks invite more inattentive processing than print. 3) Audiobook listening is more contingent on the environment than print reading. Instead of postulating the superiority of print over audio, the chapter argues that the three intuitions are largely based on a misconception of print reading, its experiential characteristics, and its function.
Style, 2014
The objective of this article is twofold. In the first part, I discuss two issues central to any ... more The objective of this article is twofold. In the first part, I discuss two issues central to any theoretical inquiry into mental imagery: embodiment and consciousness. I do so against the backdrop of second-generation cognitive science, more specifically the increasingly popular research framework of embodied cognition, and I consider two caveats attached to its current exploitation in narrative theory. In the second part, I attempt to cast new light on readerly mental imagery by offering a typology of what I propose to be its four basic varieties. The typology is grounded in the framework of embodied cognition and it is largely compatible with key neuroscientific and other experimental evidence produced within the framework.
Kelly, M. (ed.) Oxford Encyclopedia of Aesthetics: Second Edition, 2014
Journal of Literary Theory, 2013
It is generally acknowledged that verbal auditory imagery, the reader's sense of hearing the word... more It is generally acknowledged that verbal auditory imagery, the reader's sense of hearing the words on a page, matters in the silent reading of poetry. Verbal auditory imagery (VAI) in the silent reading of narrative prose, on the other hand, is mostly neglected by literary and other theorists. This is a first attempt to provide a systematic theoretical account of the felt qualities and underlying cognitive mechanics of narrative VAI, drawing on convergent evidence from the experimental cognitive sciences, psycholinguistic theory, and introspection. The central argument is that distinctions within the domain of embodied VAI also apply to higher-order meaning-making. That is, based on the imaginer's level of self-implication in their production, discrete types of VAI are associated with discrete tendencies in spontaneous literary interpretation. More generally, the aim of this paper is to isolate a new set of embodied experiences which, along with previously researched phenomena such as sensorimotor enactment or emotion, contribute to our understanding of literary narrative.
Bernaerts, L., et al. (eds.) Stories and Minds: Cognitive Approaches to Literary Narrative, 2013
This paper disputes the notion, endorsed by much of narrative theory, that the reading of literar... more This paper disputes the notion, endorsed by much of narrative theory, that the reading of literary narrative is functionally analogous to an act of communication, where communication stands for the transfer of thought and conceptual information. The paper offers a basic typology of the sensorimotor effects of reading, which fall outside such a narrowly communication-based model of literary narrative. A main typological distinction is drawn between those sensorimotor effects pertaining to the narrative qua verbal utterance (verbal presence) and those sensorimotor effects pertaining to the imaginary physical world(s) of the story (direct presence). While verbal presence refers to the reader's vicarious perception of the voices of narrators and characters, direct presence refers to the emulated sensorimotor experience of the imaginary worlds that the narrators' and characters' utterances refer to. The paper further elaborates on how, by which kinds of narrative content and structure, direct presence may be prompted. The final section addresses some of the observational and historical caveats that must be attached to any theoretical inquiry made into the sensorimotor effects of reading. As a preliminary for further research, a few ideas about the model's potential for empirical validation are put forward. A brief, tentative history of the sensorimotor benefits of literary narrative reading is then outlined.
Semiotica, Mar 1, 2012
Drawing on research in narrative theory and literary aesthetics, text and discourse processing, p... more Drawing on research in narrative theory and literary aesthetics, text and discourse processing, phenomenology and the experimental cognitive sciences, this paper outlines an embodied theory of presence (i.e., the reader's sense of having entered a tangible environment) in the reading of literary narrative. Contrary to common assumptions, it is argued that there is no straightforward relation between the degree of detail in spatial description on one hand, and the vividness of spatial imagery and presence on the other. It is also argued that presence arises from a first-person, enactive process of sensorimotor simulation/resonance, rather than from mere visualizing from the perspective of a passive, third-person observer. In sections 1 to 3, an inter-theoretical argument is presented, proposing that presence may be effectively cued by explicit (or strongly implied) references to object-directed bodily movement. In section 4, an attempt is made at explaining which ways of embedding such references in the narrative may be particularly productive at eliciting presence.
Literacy, 2022
Literacy research and practice are invigorated by evidence that stories enhance empathy and conce... more Literacy research and practice are invigorated by evidence that stories enhance empathy and concentration. Both benefits are associated with attending to inner sensory states afforded by stories. Yet children are rarely asked about how stories, steeped as they are in characters' bodily actions, affect them in bodily terms. We have conducted a qualitative study inviting 9- to 12-year-olds (N = 19) to share their embodied story experiences. To this end, we developed a toolkit of story excerpts and activities supported with bespoke props that can be adopted in research but also in classrooms and other practice. The toolkit was tested in school-based focus groups (accompanied by in-class observations) and home-based individual interviews. We introduce the toolkit and discuss some of the key prerequisites of its use. Further, we present three main types of embodiment statements provided by our participants: what-statements about the trigger of one's embodied experience, how-statements about the sensory or motor quality of the experience and what-and-how statements combining both aspects. We consider the distinct potentials of these statement types for fostering children's embodied self-awareness and story awareness in educational settings and beyond.
Cambridge Journal of Education, 2021
Fiction, more than expository text, nurtures intimate connections between text and the reader’s l... more Fiction, more than expository text, nurtures intimate connections between text and the reader’s life experiences. This dimension of reader response is underexplored in relation to children. Adapting methods from Empirical Literary Studies to educational research objectives, we employed the concept of ‘remindings,’ i.e. reminiscing prompted by text, in studying children’s life-resonant responses to self-selected leisure books. Six workshops were run in primary classrooms during which participants (N = 148; age 8–11) engaged in remindings and mental imagery. Written remindings were then analysed for systematic variation across fiction book genres (Real-world vs. Fantasy; Relationships vs. Adventure). We found that Real-World Adventure books prompted remindings of discrete life events, while Real-World Relationships books prompted remindings of more diffuse experiences. Fantasy Adventure books were the least likely to prompt remindings. Further genre-based differences emerged in the distribution of themes within remindings. We consider the consequences of these insights for supporting young readers.
Dosier CERLALC - Ecosistema del libro: Lectura en papel vs. lectura en pantalla, 2020
La disminución de la materialidad en el tránsito de la lectura impresa a la lectura en pantalla ¿... more La disminución de la materialidad en el tránsito de la lectura impresa a la lectura en pantalla ¿Ofrece lo impreso anclajes para la memoria que desaparecen en la pantalla? ¿De qué modo elementos externos y materiales influyen en la lectura y la recordación?
Journal of Eye Movement Research, 2020
Based on Kuzmičová’s (2014) phenomenological typology of narrative styles, we studied the specifi... more Based on Kuzmičová’s (2014) phenomenological typology of narrative styles, we studied the specific contributions of mental imagery to literary reading experience and to reading behavior by combining questionnaires with eye-tracking methodology. Specifically, we focused on the two main categories in Kuzmičová’s (2014) typology, i.e., texts dominated by an “enactive” style, and texts dominated by a “descriptive” style. “Enactive” style texts render characters interacting with their environment, and “descriptive” style texts render environments dissociated from human action. The quantitative analyses of word category distributions of two dominantly enactive and two dominantly descriptive texts indicated significant differences especially in the number of verbs, with more verbs in enactment compared to descriptive texts. In a second study, participants read two texts (one theoretically cueing descriptive imagery, the other cueing enactment imagery) while their eye movements were recorded. After reading, participants completed questionnaires assessing aspects of the reading experience generally, as well as their text-elicited mental imagery specifically. Results show that readers experienced more difficulties conjuring up mental images during reading descriptive style texts and that longer fixation duration on words were associated with enactive style text. We propose that enactive style involves more imagery processes which can be reflected in eye movement behavior.
Rubery, M., & L. Price (eds.): Further Reading (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2020), 2020
This chapter revisits three common ideas about how consciousness works when we read fiction. Firs... more This chapter revisits three common ideas about how consciousness works when we read fiction. Firstly, I contest the notion that the reading consciousness is a container of sorts, containing a circumscribed amount of textual stimulus. Secondly, I argue against the view that readers abstract their personal concerns away in reading, and that they do so with benefit. Thirdly, I show how the reading consciousness encompasses rather than excludes the physical situation and environment of reading. For each idea revisited, I discuss practical implications for how reading could be taught, assessed, and staged in educational settings.
Poetics Today, 2019
Although personal relevance is key to sustaining an audience’s interest in any given narrative, i... more Although personal relevance is key to sustaining an audience’s interest in any given narrative, it has received little systematic attention in scholarship to date. Across centuries and media, adaptations have been used extensively to bring temporally or geographically distant narratives “closer” to the recipient under the assumption that their impact will increase. In this review article, we review experimental and other empirical evidence on narrative processing in order to unravel which types of personal relevance are more likely to be impactful than others, which types of impact (e.g. aesthetic, therapeutic, persuasive) they have been found to generate, and where their power becomes excessive or outright detrimental to reader experience.
Participations, 2019
This article reports key findings from a quantitative online survey of everyday reading practices... more This article reports key findings from a quantitative online survey of everyday reading practices (N = 277) that targeted library professionals and students enrolled in an Information Science program in Denmark. The survey derived its rationale from the current upsurge in reading on smartphones but was constructed so as to give a comprehensive overview of all devices used for reading, as well as to map how these devices combine in respondents' reading behaviour with specific text genres and physical environments. The data documents a highly diversified reading ecology where most genres are read on most devices and where readers' choices and preferences vary with gender, age, and life situation. The clearest patterns emerge among female respondents (N = 221; M age = 39; range 19-65) who fall into distinct reader/user groups according to age. Most importantly, we found the variety of digital devices used for reading to increase rather than decrease with age, contrary tocommon assumptions. Meanwhile, the youngest of the female respondents seem to read in the greatest variety of environments, and to make the least use of printed reading materials.
First Monday, 2018
The shift from print to screen has bodily effects on how we read. We distinguish two dimensions o... more The shift from print to screen has bodily effects on how we read. We distinguish two dimensions of embodied reading: the spatio-temporal and the imaginary. The former relates to what the body does during the act of reading and the latter relates to the role of the body in the imagined scenarios we create from what we read. At the level of neurons, these two dimensions are related to how we make sense of the world. From this perspective, we explain how the bodily activity of reading changes from print to screen. Our focus is on the decreased material anchoring of memories.
Convergence: The International Journal of Research into New Media Technology, 2020
Mobile phones are reportedly the most rapidly expanding e-reading device worldwide. However, the ... more Mobile phones are reportedly the most rapidly expanding e-reading device worldwide. However, the embodied, cognitive, and affective implications of smartphone-supported fiction reading for leisure (m-reading) have yet to be investigated empirically. Revisiting the theoretical work of digitization scholar Anne Mangen, we argue that the digital reading experience is not only contingent on patterns of embodied reader-device interaction (Mangen 2008 and later), but also embedded in the immediate environment and broader situational context. We call this the situation constraint. Its application to Mangen's general framework enables us to identify four novel research areas wherein m-reading should be investigated with regard to its unique affordances. The areas are reader-device affectivity, situated embodiment, attention training, and long-term immersion.
The Journal of General Psychology, 2018
Word frequency is one of the most robust factors in the literature on word processing, based on t... more Word frequency is one of the most robust factors in the literature on word processing, based on the lexical corpus of a language. However, different sources might be used in order to determine the actual frequency of each word. Recent research has determined frequencies based on movie subtitles, Twitter, blog posts, or newspapers. In this paper, we examine a determination of these frequencies based on the World Wide Web. For this purpose, a Python script was developed to obtain frequencies of a word through online search results. These frequencies were employed to estimate lexical decision times in comparison to the traditional frequencies in a lexical decision task. It was found that the Google frequencies predict reaction times comparably to the traditional frequencies. Still, the explained variance was higher for the traditional database.
Literacy, 2018
Reading, even when silent and individual, is a social phenomenon and has often been studied as su... more Reading, even when silent and individual, is a social phenomenon and has often been studied as such. Complementary to this view, research has begun to explore how reading is embodied beyond simply being ‘wired’ in the brain. This article brings the social and embodied perspectives together in a very literal sense. Reporting a qualitative study of reading practices across student focus groups from six European countries, it identifies an underexplored factor in reading behaviour and experience. This factor is the sheer physical presence, and concurrent activity, of other people in the environment where one engages in individual silent reading. The primary goal of the study was to explore the role and possible associations of a number of variables (text type, purpose, device) in selecting generic (e.g. indoors vs outdoors) as well as specific (e.g. home vs library) reading environments. Across all six samples included in the study, participants spontaneously attested to varied, and partly surprising, forms of sensitivity to company and social space in their daily efforts to align body with mind for reading. The article reports these emergent trends and discusses their potential implications for research and practice.
Language and Literature, 2017
Several quantitative studies (e.g. Kidd & Castano, 2013a; Djikic et al., 2013) have shown a posit... more Several quantitative studies (e.g. Kidd & Castano, 2013a; Djikic et al., 2013) have shown a positive correlation between literary reading and empathy. However, the literary nature of the stimuli used in these studies has not been defined at a more detailed, stylistic level. In order to explore the stylistic underpinnings of the hypothesized link between literariness and empathy, we conducted a qualitative experiment in which the degree of stylistic foregrounding was manipulated. Subjects (N = 37) read versions of Katherine Mansfield's 'The Fly', a short story rich in foregrounding, while marking striking and evocative passages of their choosing. Afterwards, they were asked to select three markings and elaborate on their experiences in writing. One group read the original story, while the other read a 'non-literary' version, produced by an established author of suspense fiction for young adults, where stylistic foregrounding was reduced. We found that the non-literary version elicited significantly more (p < 0.01) explicitly empathic responses than the original story. This finding stands in contradiction to widely accepted assumptions in recent research, but can be assimilated in alternative models of literariness and affect in literary reading (e.g. Cupchik et al., 1998). We present an analysis of the data with a view to offering more than one interpretation of the observed effects of stylistic foregrounding.
Scientific Study of Literature, 2016
The objective of this article is to review extant empirical studies of empathy in narrative readi... more The objective of this article is to review extant empirical studies of empathy in narrative reading in light of (i) contemporary literary theory, and (ii) neuroscientific studies of empathy, and to discuss how a closer interplay between neuroscience and literary studies may enhance our understanding of empathy in narrative reading. An introduction to some of the philosophical roots of empathy is followed by tracing its application in contemporary literary theory, in which scholars have pursued empathy with varying degrees of conceptual precision, often within the context of embodied/enactive cognition. The presentation of empirical literary studies of empathy is subsequently contextualized by an overview of psychological and neuroscientific aspects of empathy. Highlighting points of convergence and divergence, the discussion illustrates how findings of empirical literary studies align with recent neuroscientific research. The article concludes with some prospects for future empirical research, suggesting that digitization may contribute to advancing the scientific knowledge of empathy in narrative reading.
Communication Theory, 2016
While language use in general is currently being explored as essentially situated in immediate ph... more While language use in general is currently being explored as essentially situated in immediate physical environment, narrative reading is primarily regarded as a means of decoupling one’s consciousness from the environment. In order to offer a more diversified view of narrative reading, the article distinguishes between three different roles the environment can play in the reading experience. Next to the traditional notion that environmental stimuli disrupt attention, the article proposes that they can also serve as a prop for mental imagery and/or a locus of pleasure more generally. The latter two perspectives presuppose a more clear-cut distinction between consciousness and attention than typically assumed in the communication literature. The article concludes with a list of implications for research and practice.
Mildorf, J., & T. Kinzel (eds.) Audionarratology: Interfaces of Sound and Narrative, 2016
Comparisons between audiobook listening and print reading often boil down to the fact that audiob... more Comparisons between audiobook listening and print reading often boil down to the fact that audiobooks impose limitations on the recipient’s continuous in-depth reflection. As a result, audiobook listening is considered a shallow alternative to reading. This chapter critically revisits the following three intuitions commonly associated with such comparisons: 1) Audiobooks elicit more mental imagery than print. 2) Audiobooks invite more inattentive processing than print. 3) Audiobook listening is more contingent on the environment than print reading. Instead of postulating the superiority of print over audio, the chapter argues that the three intuitions are largely based on a misconception of print reading, its experiential characteristics, and its function.
Style, 2014
The objective of this article is twofold. In the first part, I discuss two issues central to any ... more The objective of this article is twofold. In the first part, I discuss two issues central to any theoretical inquiry into mental imagery: embodiment and consciousness. I do so against the backdrop of second-generation cognitive science, more specifically the increasingly popular research framework of embodied cognition, and I consider two caveats attached to its current exploitation in narrative theory. In the second part, I attempt to cast new light on readerly mental imagery by offering a typology of what I propose to be its four basic varieties. The typology is grounded in the framework of embodied cognition and it is largely compatible with key neuroscientific and other experimental evidence produced within the framework.
Kelly, M. (ed.) Oxford Encyclopedia of Aesthetics: Second Edition, 2014
Journal of Literary Theory, 2013
It is generally acknowledged that verbal auditory imagery, the reader's sense of hearing the word... more It is generally acknowledged that verbal auditory imagery, the reader's sense of hearing the words on a page, matters in the silent reading of poetry. Verbal auditory imagery (VAI) in the silent reading of narrative prose, on the other hand, is mostly neglected by literary and other theorists. This is a first attempt to provide a systematic theoretical account of the felt qualities and underlying cognitive mechanics of narrative VAI, drawing on convergent evidence from the experimental cognitive sciences, psycholinguistic theory, and introspection. The central argument is that distinctions within the domain of embodied VAI also apply to higher-order meaning-making. That is, based on the imaginer's level of self-implication in their production, discrete types of VAI are associated with discrete tendencies in spontaneous literary interpretation. More generally, the aim of this paper is to isolate a new set of embodied experiences which, along with previously researched phenomena such as sensorimotor enactment or emotion, contribute to our understanding of literary narrative.
Bernaerts, L., et al. (eds.) Stories and Minds: Cognitive Approaches to Literary Narrative, 2013
This paper disputes the notion, endorsed by much of narrative theory, that the reading of literar... more This paper disputes the notion, endorsed by much of narrative theory, that the reading of literary narrative is functionally analogous to an act of communication, where communication stands for the transfer of thought and conceptual information. The paper offers a basic typology of the sensorimotor effects of reading, which fall outside such a narrowly communication-based model of literary narrative. A main typological distinction is drawn between those sensorimotor effects pertaining to the narrative qua verbal utterance (verbal presence) and those sensorimotor effects pertaining to the imaginary physical world(s) of the story (direct presence). While verbal presence refers to the reader's vicarious perception of the voices of narrators and characters, direct presence refers to the emulated sensorimotor experience of the imaginary worlds that the narrators' and characters' utterances refer to. The paper further elaborates on how, by which kinds of narrative content and structure, direct presence may be prompted. The final section addresses some of the observational and historical caveats that must be attached to any theoretical inquiry made into the sensorimotor effects of reading. As a preliminary for further research, a few ideas about the model's potential for empirical validation are put forward. A brief, tentative history of the sensorimotor benefits of literary narrative reading is then outlined.
Semiotica, Mar 1, 2012
Drawing on research in narrative theory and literary aesthetics, text and discourse processing, p... more Drawing on research in narrative theory and literary aesthetics, text and discourse processing, phenomenology and the experimental cognitive sciences, this paper outlines an embodied theory of presence (i.e., the reader's sense of having entered a tangible environment) in the reading of literary narrative. Contrary to common assumptions, it is argued that there is no straightforward relation between the degree of detail in spatial description on one hand, and the vividness of spatial imagery and presence on the other. It is also argued that presence arises from a first-person, enactive process of sensorimotor simulation/resonance, rather than from mere visualizing from the perspective of a passive, third-person observer. In sections 1 to 3, an inter-theoretical argument is presented, proposing that presence may be effectively cued by explicit (or strongly implied) references to object-directed bodily movement. In section 4, an attempt is made at explaining which ways of embedding such references in the narrative may be particularly productive at eliciting presence.
Defined as vicarious sensorimotor experiencing, mental imagery is a powerful source of aesthetic ... more Defined as vicarious sensorimotor experiencing, mental imagery is a powerful source of aesthetic enjoyment in everyday life and, reportedly, one of the commonest things readers remember about literary narratives in the long term. Furthermore, it is positively correlated with other dimensions of reader response, most notably with emotion. Until recent decades, however, the phenomenon of mental imagery has been largely overlooked by modern literary scholarship.
As an attempt to strengthen the status of mental imagery within the literary and, more generally, aesthetic discipline, this dissertation proposes an analysis positioned at a confluence of literary theory and the cognitive sciences, especially the emergent research framework of embodied cognition.
Questions asked throughout the dissertation include the following:
a) What are the basic varieties of mental imagery in the reading of literary narrative?
b) By what contents or narrative strategies are they most likely to be prompted?
c) What is it like to experience a mental image of a particular variety?
d) What are its psychophysiological underpinnings?
e) How does a mental image of a particular variety relate to perception?
f) How does it relate to higher-order meaning-making?
Four prototypical imagery varieties are distinguished on the basis of two variables with two values each (referential vs. verbal domain; inner vs. outer stance). Gradual transitions and in-between imagery varieties are acknowledged. The imagery typology and related hypotheses are grounded in introspection but carefully supported with indirect empirical evidence and, whenever possible, formulated so as to facilitate direct validation.
Sveriges Radio P1, 2018
Utbudet av barn- och ungdomsljudböcker har under de senaste åren ökat markant hos både förlag och... more Utbudet av barn- och ungdomsljudböcker har under de senaste åren ökat markant hos både förlag och strömningstjänster.
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 2018
Immer größere Teile unserer Lektüre finden auf Bildschirmen statt. Manche Gewohnheiten des digita... more Immer größere Teile unserer Lektüre finden auf Bildschirmen statt. Manche Gewohnheiten des digitalen Lesens beeinträchtigen auch das Lesen auf Papier. Wir müssen Schutzmaßnahmen entwickeln und zugleich die Vorzüge des digitalen Lesens ausschöpfen.
Morgenbladet, 2018
Interview on the place of audiobooks in the contemporary media ecology. Partly based on my 2016 a... more Interview on the place of audiobooks in the contemporary media ecology. Partly based on my 2016 article on audiobook processing. [Kuzmičová, A. (2016). Audiobooks and print narrative: similarities in text experience. J. Mildorf, T. Kinzel (eds.). Audionarratology: Interfaces of Sound and Narrative. Berlin: De Gruyter. 217-237. DOI: 10.1515/9783110472752-014]
Sveriges Radio P1, 2016
Interview on Sveriges Radio ("Radio Sweden"), P1. Topic: my 2016 article on audiobook processing.... more Interview on Sveriges Radio ("Radio Sweden"), P1. Topic: my 2016 article on audiobook processing. [Kuzmičová, A. (2016). Audiobooks and print narrative: similarities in text experience. J. Mildorf, T. Kinzel (eds.). Audionarratology: Interfaces of Sound and Narrative. Berlin: De Gruyter. 217-237. DOI: 10.1515/9783110472752-014]
Estetika: The Central European Journal of Aesthetics, 2014
Tidskrift för litteraturvetenskap, 2013
Narrative studies, and literary scholarship overall, are currently experiencing a renewed interes... more Narrative studies, and literary scholarship overall, are currently experiencing a renewed interest in the mechanisms behind readers’ affective and cognitive responses, especially empathy. Recent experimental research shows literary narratives to prompt empathy in the short and long term. However, it is unlikely that any particular text exerts the same affective and potentially edifying power indiscriminately on all readers, regardless of what Caracciolo (2014) terms “experiential background”. In our paper, we will review experimental and other empirical evidence on narrative processing in order to unravel which types of personal relevance are more likely to be impactful than others, which types of impact (e.g. aesthetic, therapeutic, persuasive) they have been found to generate, and where their power might become excessive or outright detrimental to reader experience.
Researchers in psychology and related disciplines tend to study the process of reading as if it w... more Researchers in psychology and related disciplines tend to study the process of reading as if it were wholly decoupled from the immediate physical environment. For instance, attention to a story is measured as the inverse of the reader’s ambient awareness. Indeed, story reading is often practiced with the objective to mentally escape from unpleasant places such as crowded trains or waiting rooms. In my talk, however, I will show that this is only one mode of reading among many, and that the relationship between a written story and the physical environment is subtler than commonly assumed. Specifically, I will show how the environment can also serve as a prop for story-related mental imagery and/or a locus of pleasure, rather than being a sheer distractor. Finally, I will briefly report a recent study in which my collaborators and I found readers’ experiences to be strongly affected by the physical presence and/or concurrent activity of other people in a given environment.
The current decrease in young adult literacy is commonly discussed among cognitive scientists in ... more The current decrease in young adult literacy is commonly discussed among cognitive scientists in light of two assumptions: that fiction reading fosters empathy and that it fosters critical thought. I ran a study with a sample of young adults (age 17-18, N = 111), probing both assumptions. Subjects read an actual news story on the topic of social mobility, filling out quantitative and qualitative questionnaires, some of which targeted the subjects’ reading behavior and attitude to fiction. The rhetoric of the story was skewed to the point of distorting basic facts.
The data shows an association between self-reported relative frequency of fiction reading and empathy with socially disadvantaged job seekers mentioned in the story. However, there was an independent effect of personal relevance; subjects from disadvantaged social backgrounds were more likely to empathize than others. As for critical reading strategies, resistance to the rhetoric of the story was high, but subjects who reported reading fiction more frequently, as well as those who reported reading more distinctly literary fiction, were more perceptive towards possible interpretations.
The findings are presented with a particular view to discussing the variable of personal relevance, which is rarely controlled in experimental designs but emerges as a key determinant in natural reading selections and strategies.
Long-form reading–whether for leisure, work, or education–is becoming increasingly digitized. But... more Long-form reading–whether for leisure, work, or education–is becoming increasingly digitized. But researchers worry that reading from digital devices may yield lesser cognitive and affective benefits than reading in print. Pioneering experiments with readers of long-form fiction show that this worry is at least partly warranted. A digital device, it is argued, does not allow readers to engage with a story as deeply as a print book due to different affordances for the reader’s body. In this lecture, embodiment in digital reading will be revisited and reappraised with a special focus on the emerging practice of fiction reading from smartphones and other mobile devices.
To the embodiment perspective that informs above comparisons between digital and print reading (most notably the work of Anne Mangen, University of Stavanger), I will apply an additional situation constraint. The situation constraint entails that the affordances of a reading technology – digital or analogue – should always be considered in relation to a particular environment and situation. Furthermore, readers’ engagement will be redefined so as to encompass fiction-induced experience beyond the instances of reading proper. Finally, I will take a more nuanced look at the range of possible affects playing into one’s interaction with a reading technology. These steps will help expose several positive implications of the mobile device for readers’ engagement.
A number of studies have recently been produced in the U.S. and Canada linking theory of mind (th... more A number of studies have recently been produced in the U.S. and Canada linking theory of mind (the ability to accurately assess the mental states of other people) to lifetime exposure to literary, especially stylistically foregrounded, fiction. The paper presents an experiment devised to partially replicate and further develop this strand of research outside the English-speaking world. Subjects (Norwegian teacher training undergraduates) were asked to read a short story while assessing their reading experience on a number of variables. They were also tested for general reading skills and, in two different sessions, for their theory of mind abilities. In addition, they provided personal background information concerning their reading behavior and attitudes to literature. One group of subjects read the original story, which was rich in foregrounding, while another group read a manipulated, subliterary version of the story where foregrounding was minimized. The foregrounded version was expected to correlate with a broader range of affective responses and increased scores on theory of mind. The paper offers a first analysis of the data with regard to these hypotheses.
The audiobook experience differs radically from traditional silent reading in several respects, o... more The audiobook experience differs radically from traditional silent reading in several respects, one of them being mental imagery. While mental imagery in silent reading taps equally into the referential (story content; all sensory modalities) and verbal (narrative qua discourse; auditory and kinesthetic) domains, listening activates the auditory circuitry to a degree that leaves little need or capacity for verbal mental images. In traditional silent reading, continuous shifts between referential and verbal imaging coincide with the general distribution of one's attention between story and discourse. But how is attention distributed in narrative audiobook processing? On the one hand, one might speculate that the medium, liberating the listener from the visually taxing burden of reading, allows richer possibilities for referential imaging and a deeper focus on story content. On the other hand, the overt voicing of the discourse can make people attentive to linguistic qualities that otherwise would go unnoticed. Moreover, people use audiobooks widely while performing physical tasks or during transportation, thus receiving a flux of sensorimotor stimuli from the environment concurrent with the spoken narrative. This may interfere with, rather than encourage, referential imagery, or even any deeper focus whatsoever. In my talk I will try to systematize and reconcile some of these contradictions from an aesthetic and psychological perspective. Reviewing extant comparative data on literary listening and reading, I will thus elaborate on recent attempts to define the phenomenology of the audiobook as a specific medium. I will support my conclusions with anecdotal evidence from my own experience of listening to vs. reading Ernest Hemingway's The Garden of Eden, a novel high in referential imageability as well as linguistic craftsmanship.
Cognition is situated and the environment is part of the cognitive system. These are two of the b... more Cognition is situated and the environment is part of the cognitive system. These are two of the basic tenets of embodiment, a research framework rapidly growing in popularity. They are abstract enough to have inspired a diverse array of approaches to literature and reading. Some of these approaches look into how the minds of literary characters engage with their environment; some study how this environment informs readers’ imagination; others analyze the spatiality of literary metaphor. What all these approaches have in common is a primary focus on environment as encoded in a text. Meanwhile, this lecture will take the notions of environment and situatedness more literally and explore physical site-sensitivity in the reading of literary narrative. Leaving aside the obvious cases of overly distractive reading situations, I will outline some new theoretical distinctions applying to the relationship between narrative style and reading environment. I will propose that it does make a difference where you read, and recount several levels at which physical environment may structure your experience and understanding of a text.
Although readers' reports of their lifetime experience with narrative prose reading abound in rec... more Although readers' reports of their lifetime experience with narrative prose reading abound in recollections of mental images, narrative imagery experiences (NIEs) are rarely examined in their own right. Moreover, there is relatively little potential for comprehensive theory building in the extant body of research concerning readers' mental imagery. For instance, theoretical inquiries into the mechanics of mental imaging are often inconclusive as to their claims on the matter of consciousness. Empirical studies of reader response, when expressly focusing on the conscious experience of mental imagery, typically ask readers to check a generic questionnaire item (e.g., “The text calls up an image in my mind.”) but do not solicit further description. Finally, assumptions vary widely across approaches and scholarly traditions regarding the relationship of mental imagery to other dimensions of readerly experience, such as medium awareness or higher-order meaning-making (interpretation). In response to the above, my talk will survey current experimental findings in the field of embodied cognition in order to offer a tentative typology of the basic NIEs, grounded in a circumscribed set of parameters. Roughly speaking, I will argue that NIEs can be either referential (story-based) or verbal (discourse-based). I will further argue that within these two categories, they can be experienced from two different bodily perspectives: an inner (first-person) perspective and an outer (third-person) perspective. This will allow me to isolate four NIE prototypes, each with a specific combination of properties relative to medium awareness and higher-order meaning-making. I will call these NIEs 1. Experience-imagery (referential & inner), 2. Description-imagery (referential & outer), 3. Speech-imagery (verbal & outer) and 4. Rehearsal-imagery (verbal & inner). I will conclude with a note on the applicability of my NIE typology on metaphor and other poetic imagery experiences (PIEs).
Kvalitativní výzkumy naznačují, že smyslová imaginace je jednou z klíčových složek estetického pr... more Kvalitativní výzkumy naznačují, že smyslová imaginace je jednou z klíčových složek estetického prožitku literární četby. Přesto jí uměnovědné a kognitivněvědné disciplíny věnují minimální pozornost. Ti, kdo jí pozornost věnují, se pak vesměs potýkají s následujícím: (1) Mezioborové teorie volně zaměňují vědomý prožitek imaginace za nevědomé kognitivní mechanismy (např. aktivitu zrcadlových neuronů). (2) Ojedinělé kvantitativní studie, které využívají metody čtenářské introspekce v průběhu či těsně po čtení, zjišťují, zda čtenář nějakou smyslovou představu (o intenzitě 1 až n) vědomě zakusil, ale neptají se už konkrétněji po jejích kvalitách. (3) Prakticky všichni navíc smyslovou představu redukují na více či méně statický obrázek předmětností, o nichž se v textu hovoří. V první části přednášky bude zproblematizována pozice (1) až (3) tím, že bude načrtnuta širší přehledová typologie smyslových představ coby vědomých prožitků určitých kvalit. Ve druhé části přednášky bude představena dosud nepublikovaná empirická studie (spolupráce P. Dixon a M. Bortolussi, University of Alberta) zkoumající představy typu (3) v intencích postupu (2). Její výsledky napovídají, že čtenáři s různou mírou předchozí čtenářské zkušenosti zapojují různé typy smyslové imaginace.
Tento příspěvek sleduje dvojí cíl. Zaprvé hodlám kriticky nastínit postavení a pojetí imaginace v... more Tento příspěvek sleduje dvojí cíl. Zaprvé hodlám kriticky nastínit postavení a pojetí imaginace v anglosaské kognitivní vědě. Ta přirozenému jazyku dlouho upírala jeho přirozenost a myšlení považovala za abstraktní symboly bez vazby na hmatatelný svět. Nastupující generaci se postupně daří jazyk a myšlení ukotvovat v realitě, konkrétně v lidské tělesnosti (embodiment). V kognitivní vědě tak začíná převládat názor, že jazyk je nástrojem reprezentace a že klíčem k porozumění je právě imaginace (mental imagery), tj. přímý přenos smyslové zkušenosti. Například četba pohádky o perníkové chaloupce se podle takového pojetí jazyka neobejde bez nervové aktivity v některých z částí čtenářova těla, které by se v praxi podílely na loupání perníku ze střechy venkovského stavení.
Že jazykové dorozumění zásadně podmiňují naše smysly, mohou přívrženci některých fenomenologických tradic považovat za zjevné. V tomto směru je kognitivní věda vlastně zpozdilá. V otázce imaginace navíc běžně hřeší tím, že nerozlišuje mezi imaginací ve smyslu nevědomých reprezentací a smyslovými představami, které subjektivně prožíváme. Oproti kontinentálním humanitním tradicím má však i jednu výhodu: soustavně vyvíjí experimentální metody, jejichž pomocí pak sbírá empirická data. Druhým cílem tohoto příspěvku bude představit výsledky experimentu, v němž jsem ve spolupráci s psychology z albertské univerzity skloubila fenomenologicky inspirované intuice o imaginaci v procesu četby s empirickými přístupy kognitivní vědy.
Although readers' reports of their lifetime literary experience abound in recollections of mental... more Although readers' reports of their lifetime literary experience abound in recollections of mental images, narrative imagery experiences (NIEs) are rarely examined in their own right. Moreover, there is relatively little potential for comprehensive theory building in the extant body of research concerning readers' mental imagery. Theoretical inquiries into the mechanics of mental imaging are often inconclusive as to their claims on the matter of consciousness. Empirical studies of reader response, when expressly focusing on the conscious experience of mental imagery, typically ask readers to check a generic questionnaire item (e.g., “The text calls up an image in my mind.”) but do not solicit further description. Finally, assumptions vary widely across approaches and scholarly traditions regarding the relationship between mental imagery and literary interpretation.
In response to the above, my talk offers a tentative survey of the basic NIEs, grounded in a circumscribed set of parameters. Roughly speaking, I will argue that NIEs can be either direct (story-based) or verbal (discourse-based). I will further argue that within these two categories, they can be either more or less fully embodied. This will allow me to isolate four NIE prototypes, each with a specific combination of properties relating to reflective higher-order meaning-making, i.e., interpretation.
We examined the effect of length and explicit reference to embodied interaction, respectively, on... more We examined the effect of length and explicit reference to embodied interaction, respectively, on the self-reported imageability of literary visual descriptions. Subjects read descriptions of mundane objects, differing with respect to two variables: 1) the amount of visual detail provided; 2) reference to embodied interaction. We found an interaction between the manipulated variables and previous exposure to literary fiction. In subjects who scored low on a measure of previous fiction exposure, additional descriptive detail improved the imageability of all items across the two variables. In subjects who scored high on a measure of previous fiction exposure, the positive imageabiity effect of additional detail was only found for items including a reference to embodied interaction. For descriptions lacking such reference, a reverse effect of additional descriptive detail was found. Our interpretation is that while experienced readers may sense that their visual imagery is offset by static, disembodied descriptions, inexperienced readers may be less sensitive to the engaging potential of embodiment cues, thus reporting a straightforward linear proportion between explicit detail and imageability overall.
One of the most challenging topics for cognitive literary study is the reader's mental imagery. I... more One of the most challenging topics for cognitive literary study is the reader's mental imagery. In this talk I will focus on the particular kind of mental imagery prompted by the stylistic device of visual description. Although valuable predictive inquiries have been made into readers' mental imagery in general (Scarry 1999, Burke 2011), its relation to visual description is largely undertheorized. In spite of the fact that visual description is unique, compared to other modes of verbal representation, in its potential to control the specific contents of one's mental image.
Referring to my own experimental data from an imagery study conducted under the tutorship of Professors Bortolussi and Dixon of Alberta, I will use the example of visual description to make the following points regarding all predictive inquiry into the cognitive effects of literary style, and into readers' mental imagery in particular:
- To advance literary study, prediction about the parameters of literary processing (e.g., the occurrence of visual imagery) should be made conjointly with prediction about the specific value of these parameters (e.g., the contents of the visual image).
- Therefore, cognitive science can be fully helpful to literary study only insofar as it encompasses phenomenology and other methods of informed introspection.
- That prediction made from within traditional scientific paradigms sometimes runs counter to phenomenological prediction does not necessarily entail mutual exclusivity. Rather, the tension between the two is precisely what is distinctive for literature as an object of scientific knowledge.
References:
Burke, Michael. 2011. Literary Reading, Cognition and Emotion: An Exploration of the Oceanic Mind. London: Routledge.
Scarry, Elaine. 1999. Dreaming by the Book. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
In this paper I will propose a reader-centered theory of literary description. Drawing on the div... more In this paper I will propose a reader-centered theory of literary description. Drawing on the divide between conceptual interpretation and pre-conceptual storyworld imagery, I will look into which descriptive devices may be particularly productive of the two reading strategies, respectively. Whereas novels and short stories often intermingle the strategies by and large, isolated passages of the same texts usually do not have an equal potential to elicit both. The reasons to study description from a reader-centered perspective, while making it a pilot notion in tackling the dialectics of interpretation and imagery, are twofold: Firstly, description pertains largely to the generation of imaginary storyworlds. However, passages rich in description are often regarded as indicators of narrative mediation, a view that suggests availability to higher-order interpretation. Secondly, description has mainly been defined in terms of its semantics. Yet a comprehensive account of what description is should also encompass a theory of what it does.
The presentation will pursue the following objectives: 1. To argue against the assumption that... more The presentation will pursue the following objectives:
1. To argue against the assumption that a literary narrative is functionally and/or structurally analogous to an act of verbal communication. This assumption lies at the heart of most contemporary narratology and narrative aesthetics.
2. To replace the communication model of literary narrative by a stimulus model of literary narrative, with the benefit of including the immersive processes of reading, which tend to be omitted from narratological analysis.
3. To credit a few earlier theorists of similar views, thus historicizing narrative aesthetics as an academic discipline, and outline a brief overview of the various immersive processes elicited in literary reading.
4. To put major emphasis on one of these processes – “presence”, i.e. the readerʼs sense of having entered a tangible environment, – and question its functional/structural constancy throughout literary history.
During the past two decades, converging evidence has been accumulated within cognitive science an... more During the past two decades, converging evidence has been accumulated within cognitive science and related disciplines pointing toward an embodied and situated view of cognition, including abstract conceptual thinking. Moreover, researchers have begun investigating and acknowledging extensively the crucial role of motor activity, be it overt or covert, in both cognition and perception. With the gradual discovery of mirror neurons, accompanied by a reemergence of grounded theories of mind, the once so sharp dividing line between lower and higher cognition, as well as between action and perception, has become considerably blurred. Complex phenomena such as consciousness, selfhood, empathy, language production and language comprehension are currently being discussed in terms of motor imagery and represented movement. This body of research, largely supported by neuroimaging studies, not only questions accepted concepts of human psyche. It also opens up new ways of elucidating aesthetic, and most notably literary, experience. By narrowing down our notion of unmarked experience as such, it stipulates a fruitful revision of distinguished key terms in narrative theory – realism, representation, immersion, to name just a few.
Elaborating on some of the expanding yet still little known empirical research in embodied language processing, as well as on studies carried out by its precursors in discourse research and on recent work in phenomenology and cognitive neuroscience, this paper aims to briefly outline a theory of motor representation in literary narrative reading. It will be argued that reader immersion stands in direct proportion to certain forms of encoded bodily movement, and that the reader's feeling of being physically present in a literary world is enhanced or suppressed by the narrative favouring the motor or sensory mode, respectively. Demonstrated throughout the paper by the example of quotidian artefact embedding in early modern (Flaubert), late modern (Robbe-Grillet) and contemporary (Toussaint) French novel, the motor vs. sensory distinction will serve as a point of departure when new theoretical concepts are introduced, such as ”pragmatic” vs. ”semantic” description, or ”egocentric” vs. ”allocentric” narrative perspective. In addition, a few more diffuse, larger text unit and world knowledge factors assumed to affect motor representation, e.g. narrative prominence (”linguistic” vs. ”literary” foregrounding of movement) or context dependence (”volatile” vs. ”scripted” movement), will be discussed, with continuous reference to relevant results in empirical narratology and stylistics.
The particular emphasis on quotidian artefact embedding in narrative accounts of states and events will be motivated by the unique position artefact manipulation occupies in human motor repertoir, and thereby also in the simulation processes and agency and intentionality judgements determining all human-world and social interaction. Stimulating several utterly private sensorimotor faculties other than bodily movement, above all proprioception and touch, and addressing most directly the reader's procedural memory, artefact nouns – when embedded in the literary narrative in a particular manner – will be argued to arouse a strong Barthesian ”reality effect”.
Samlaren: Tidskrift för svensk litteraturvetenskaplig forskning, 2009
This article presents the design, methodology and materials of an inter-Nordic study of literary ... more This article presents the design, methodology and materials of an inter-Nordic study of literary reading among students in teacher education, in which relations between literary style and experiential aspects of literary reading (e.g., empathy and transportation) were assessed empirically. The participants in the study read Katherine Manfield’s (1922) short story “The Fly” in the original version vs. in a manipulated version where typical features of literariness (e.g., metaphors and similes) were removed. Combining quantitative measures of empathy, appreciation of literature, and aspects of reading engagement with qualitative methods, the aim of the study was to probe the depths of readers’ subjective reading experience. In reporting the study the article introduces paradigms and measures from interdisciplinary empirical research on literary reading which is less known in a Nordic context but which is rapidly gaining momentum internationally.
[First five pages only; full text available from author on request]
Several quantitative studies (e.g. Kidd & Castano, 2013; Mar et al., 2009) have shown a positive ... more Several quantitative studies (e.g. Kidd & Castano, 2013; Mar et al., 2009) have shown a positive correlation between literary reading and empathy. However, the literary nature of the stimuli used in these studies has not been defined at a more detailed, stylistic level. In order to explore the stylistic underpinnings of the hypothesized link between literariness and empathy, we conducted a qualitative experiment in which the degree of stylistic foregrounding was manipulated. Subjects (N = 37) read versions of Katherine Mansfield's 'The Fly', a short story rich in foregrounding, while marking striking and evocative passages of their choosing. Afterwards, they were asked to select three markings and elaborate on their experiences in writing. One group read the original story, while the other read a 'non-literary' version, produced by an established author of suspense fiction for young adults, where stylistic foregrounding was reduced. We found that the non-literary version elicited significantly more (p < 0.05) explicitly empathic responses than the original story. This finding stands in contradiction to widely accepted assumptions in recent research, but can be assimilated in alternative models of literariness and affect in literary reading (e.g. Cupchik et al., 1998). We present an analysis of the data with a view to offering more than one interpretation of the observed effects of stylistic foregrounding.
The objective of this article is to review extant empirical studies of empathy in narrative readi... more The objective of this article is to review extant empirical studies of empathy in narrative reading in light of (i) contemporary literary theory, and (ii) neuroscientific studies of empathy, and to discuss how a closer interplay between neuroscience and literary studies may enhance our understanding of empathy in narrative reading. An introduction to some of the philosophical roots of empathy is followed by tracing its application in contemporary literary theory, in which scholars have pursued empathy with varying degrees of conceptual precision, often within the context of embodied/enactive cognition. The presentation of empirical literary studies of empathy is subsequently contextualized by an overview of psychological and neuroscientific aspects of empathy. Highlighting points of convergence and divergence, the discussion illustrates how findings of empirical literary studies align with recent neuroscientific research. The article concludes with some prospects for future empirical research, suggesting that digitization may contribute to advancing the scientific knowledge of empathy in narrative reading.