Absorbing stories: The effects of textual devices on absorption and evaluative responses

Abstract

In previous research on absorption, the focus has been primarily on the reader and only little systematic empirical investigation of the possible textual determinants of absorption has been conducted. Furthermore, no attention has been paid to the relationship between aesthetic experiences, such as foregrounding or aesthetic appreciation, and absorption. The main focus of this dissertation is on how the use of different textual devices – popular and literary – can elicit different absorption experiences and subsequent (aesthetic) evaluative responses. In order to investigate the determinants of and responses to story world absorption, a measure is developed and validated that is able to reliably capture story world absorption in different stimulus materials. Four experimental studies investigated the effects of two types of textual devices on story world absorption, foregrounding, and the evaluative responses of enjoyment and impact. The popular textual devices under investigation are the discourse structures of suspense and curiosity, and the literary textual device under investigation is deviation. The most important findings of this dissertation are that the use of different textual devices leads to different absorption experiences and that feelings of absorption and foregrounding do not exclude each other in one reading experience. Furthermore, readers’ previous print exposure was found to influence the relationship between text, experience, and evaluation to a large extent. Readers who have had high print exposure experience more story world absorption in texts that make use of deviation and readers who have had low print exposure experience more story world absorption in texts that make use of discourse structures. A new theory of narrative absorption is introduced. The innovative nature of the concept of narrative absorption lies in the distinction it makes between varieties of absorption that are either focused on the content or on the form of a narrative. It is suggested that foregrounding might be a variety of absorption that is focused on the form of a narrative. Suggestions are made to further explore and expand the concept of narrative absorption.