The Landscape of Emotion in Literary Encounters

This study examined the effects of emotional subject matter and descriptive style in short story excerpts on text (e.g. rich in meaning) and reader response-oriented (e.g. liking) ratings. Forty-eight subjects, including equal numbers of trained and novice male and female students, read two examples...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inCognition and emotion Vol. 12; no. 6; pp. 825 - 847
Main Authors Cupchik, Gerald C., Leonard, Garry, Axelrad, Elise, Kalin, Judith D.
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Taylor & Francis Group 01.11.1998
Subjects
Emotionality
Influences
Ratings
Responses
Short papers
Stories
Themes
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Summary:This study examined the effects of emotional subject matter and descriptive style in short story excerpts on text (e.g. rich in meaning) and reader response-oriented (e.g. liking) ratings. Forty-eight subjects, including equal numbers of trained and novice male and female students, read two examples of each text twice and either generated or received interpretations between readings in a within-subjects design. In general, intellectual challenge slowed the pace of reading, whereas suspense-based arousal increased it. Emotional subject matter had a more powerful effect than descriptive style on both cognitive (challenging, rich in meaning) and affective (expressive, personally relevant) scales and were read more quickly. Generating interpretations fostered subjective reactions to the Emotional excerpts (images), whereas Descriptive texts were less amenable to subjective responses. Consistent effects were also found for background and gender. As in everyday life, subject matter had a dominant effect in engaging a person's involvement.
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ISSN:0269-9931
1464-0600
DOI:10.1080/026999398379457