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Background: This is a review and analysis of the questionnaires most used in empirical research on psychological phenomena labelled as “presence,” “flow,” and “narrative absorption,” mostly for experiences mediated by technology (printed books, screens for games and films, and virtual reality). Overlapping concepts have been formulated in different fields according to specific disciplinary interests and based on knowledge within each field. Objectives: This review focuses on how language is actually used in questionnaire items, rather than on how concepts are formulated top-down and associated with corresponding linguistic expressions that become items of a questionnaire. The goal is to highlight similarities and overlaps in order to show a possible interdisciplinary agreement about the core aspects of the psychological states elicited by mediated experiences. Eligibility criteria: Questionnaires developed or used for research about VR, video games, films, or books have been selected for analysis. They should be available in English and used in empirical research since the year 2000. Sources of evidence: A search has been performed through Google Scholar and two other disciplinary bibliographies edited by international learned societies. Charting methods: The items of each questionnaire are categorized based on their wordings, and thus independently from the conceptual models within which they have been developed. Based on this categorization, various domains to which the items can be ascribed are identified (e.g. space, realism, agency, etc.) and psychological phenomena are linked to them (e.g. presence, social presence, narrative absorption, etc.). Results: 308 items in 23 questionnaires have been found to have overlapping of wordings. Conclusions: A list of the core aspects of presence, social presence, flow, and narrative absorption is presented, together with a critical selection of items suitable to measure each construct.

Recensione a Baroni, Raphaël, I meccanismi dell’intreccio. Introduzione alla narratologia funzionale, Effigi, 2020.

The end of deep reading is a commonplace in public debates, whenever societies talk about youth, books, and the digital age. In contrast to this, we show for the first time and in detail, how intensively young readers write and comment literary texts at an unprecedented scale. We present several analyses of how fiction is transmitted through the social reading platform Wattpad, one of the largest platforms for user-generated stories, including novels, fanfiction, humour, classics, and poetry. By mixed quantitative and qualitative methods and scalable reading we scrutinise texts and comments on Wattpad, what themes are preferred in 13 languages, what role does genre play for readers behaviour, and what kind of emotional engagement is prevalent when young readers share stories. Our results point out the rise of a global reading culture in youth reading besides national preferences for certain topics and genres, patterns of reading engagement, aesthetic values and social interaction. When reading Teen Fiction social-bonding (affective interaction) is prevalent, when reading Classics social-cognitive interaction (collective intelligence) is prevalent. An educational outcome suggests that readers who engage in Teen Fiction learn to read Classics and to judge books not only in direct emotional response to character's behaviour, but focusing more on contextualised interpretation of the text.

Negli ultimi cinque anni vi è stata un’attenzione crescente per le teorie della complessità da parte di narratologi. La recente summadella narratologia mondialeEmerging vectors of Narratology(Hansen et al. 2017) contiene due saggi dedicati a questo tema e due volumi collettivi sono in pubblicazione. Questo articolo presenta le motivazioni di tale interesse per la complessità e traccia alcuni percorsi intorno a concezioni sistemiche della narrazione, dal Formalismo russo, ad una recente proposta di John Pier, fino a giungere alla narratologia cognitivista di seconda generazione. In the last five years the attention of narratologists for complexity theory has been growing. The recent most comprehensive collection of narratology, Emerging vectors of Narratology(Hansen et al. 2017), includes two essays on the topic and two other collective books are forthcoming. This article explores the motivation of such interest in complexity and puts forth some reflections on systemic conceptions of narrative, from Russian Formalism, to a recent proposal by John Pier, ending with second generation cognitive narratology.

Si presentano alcune riflessioni sui fondamenti epistemologici della narratologia, mostrando come l’attività teorica sia da essi profondamente influenzata. Terminologie, definizioni, modelli, teorie non sono mai scelti e formulati in modo neutrale, generano sempre delle conseguenze nell’applicazione, nello sviluppo di una disciplina e nella loro adattabilità al contesto. In particolare vengono delineate le differenze fra due paradigmi epistemologici di base, quello oggettivista e quello costruttivista, argomentando in favore del secondo.A reflection on the epistemological foundation of narratology is very much needed today, since our theoretical activity is deeply influenced by its underlying assumptions. Terms, definitions, models, theories are never chosen and formulated in a neutral way, they always bring about some consequences in their application, in the development of a discipline, and in their adaptivity to the context. In particular, the differences between two basic epistemological paradigms are outlined, the objectivist and the constructivist one, bringing forth several arguments in favour of the latter.

This paper focuses on Wattpad, a social reading platform on which people can add comments in the margins of books. Analysing these comments enables the comparison between specific parts of the text and the effects they have on readers. We outline a new research programme, discussing both theoretical and practical issues in the study of Wattpad: from the identification of a methodology holding together reader response theory, cognitive literary studies, and computational text analysis, to the definition of a digital mixed method for the recognition of the linguistic and textual cues that trigger certain effects. We describe a dataset built by scraping the Wattpad website: preliminary statistics on the most commented books in the categories “Classics” and “Teen Fiction” are presented and discussed. To provide an example of the possible uses of the dataset, we introduce a simplified experiment with the sentiment analysis software Syuzhet. By comparing the “emotional arcs” produced in parallel by text and comments, we evaluate the approach and show the substantial differences between the intrinsic emotional valence of the text and the effects it produces.

This is the revised transcript of a conversation between Darko Suvin [DS] and Federico Pianzola [FP]. The topics discussed are many and the focus keeps zooming back and forth from the historical context of humanities vs. resurgent fascism to formal remarks on literature, theatre, utopia, narrative, and other themes. Particular emphasis is given to a reflection on the dialectical and constructivist approach deployed by Suvin in his works.

This is an introduction to the interviews redacted as a follow-up of the 2013 ENN conference. The discussions that originated at the conference were rich and thought-provoking and so the editors of this special section of «Enthymema» decided to continue the dialogue about the state of the art and the future of narratology.

Review of Rossholm, Göran and Christer Johansson, eds. Disputable Core Concepts of Narrative Theory. Bern: Peter Lang, 2012. Print.

This is a brief report of the first conference organized in Fribourg (CH) by the Réseau Romand de Narratologie (RRN). The title of the conference was Redefinitons of the Sequence in Postclassical Narratology.

This article presents some reflections on the concepts, terminology, and epistemological grounds of narrative theory. Our remarks are focused on the proposals advanced at the first RRN conference and they concern in particular two issues: the theoretical difference between classical and postclassical narratology and the paradigms of the contemporary debate. In the first part of the paper we focus on the definitional task of narrative theory; in the second part we describe the epistemology of and the theories built on two opposite paradigms: the mimetic and the constructivist. Our conclusions highlight the continuity and the break points between contemporary theories, soliciting narratologists to answer to the many questions raised.

In this interview Mary-Laure Ryan faces some problems that arise from her definition of «transmedia narrative». Can every semiotic system tell stories? How can we elaborate a definition of «narrative» which accounts both for cognitive and semantic aspects? How can we dispense with the syntactic level if we need a definition of «narrativity» that suits every semiotic system? Answering these questions, Ryan deals with other proposals developed around the same theoretical problems, and points out a thought-provoking argument against Meir Sternberg’s functionalist definition of narrative.

Eyal Segal argues for a functionalist approach to narrative studies. Commenting on his work on «narrative closure», he provides examples that show that the comprehension of texts’ endings is enriched by rhetorical analysis and inevitably misguided by mimetic approaches.

Parmi les nombreux sujets du débat contemporain à propos de la théorie narrative et de la narratologie, deux paradigmes fondamentaux ont récemment été mis en évidence : le paradigme mimétique ou référentiel, et le paradigme anti-mimétique ou constructiviste. Les différences et les tensions apparues entre les deux portent encore une fois sur la conception du récit et de ses éléments : comment fait-on pour théoriser les relations entre fabula et sujet ? Quel rapport y a-t-il entre les éléments de la séquence, les effets de la narration et nos capacités cognitives ? Pour éclaircir ces problèmes, Raphaël Baroni répond à certaines questions fondamentales de la théorie narrative. L’auteur de La tension narrative et de L’œuvre du temps, discerne tout d’abord le plan sur lequel reposent les difficultés, à savoir la définition de « séquence » ou d’« intrigue ». Il esquisse, ensuite, une perspective théorique apte à surmonter de tels obstacles. En examinant les relations entre discordance narrative et virtualité du récit, il est finalement amené à concevoir le récit non seulement comme un acte interactif, mais aussi comme une forme de perturbation des normes ordinaires de la communication.

Si recensisce Shen, Dan. Style and Rhetoric of Short Narrative Fiction: Covert Progressions Behind Overt Plots. New York and London: Routledge. 2014. Stampa.

Using tools derived from corpus linguistics, Toolan proposes some principles and techniques for a stylistic analysis which aims at the detection of textual elements that are responsible for reader's expectations and narrative prospection. A specific attention is given to one of this elements: the use of free indirect discourse. He wants to develop some criteria that allow a selection based only on lexical and sintactical data, in order to apply automated methods of searching to wide text corpora and test his theoretical. Here is the original article.

Di seguito trovate i video di Conversazione con Francesco Orlando. Parte 1 di 6 Parte 2 di 6 Parte 3 di 6 Parte 4 di 6 Parte 5 di 6 Parte 6 di 6

La notion de «point de vue» est fondamentale pour saisir les valeurs et la vision du monde communiqués par un récit, pour comprendre les différentes subjectivités qui peuvent dialoguer dans une histoire. Tous les récits sont traversés par une argumentation implicite qui est rendu efficace et non impositive grâce à un contexte approprié donné par le récit. Alain Rabatel emploie sa compétence de linguiste pour nous donner des indications précieux sur comment les propriétés du discours peuvent être des signes des stratégies argumentatives en action.

Si recensisce Stefano Calabrese, La comunicazione narrativa. Dalla letteratura alla quotidianità, Bruno Mondadori, Milano, 2010.

Below are the videos of the interview recorded the 21st May 2011 in Fribourg (CH), in occasion of the first RRN conference. Conversation with Meir Sternberg. Part 1 of 8 - Narratology: classical and postclassical studies. Part 2 of 8 - The development of an original theoretical framework. Part 3 of 8 - Sternberg and Genette: different ways for the same problems. Part 4 of 8 - «There are no forms except in terms of functions». Part 5 of 8 - A life writing articles: so many papers and just four books. Part 6 of 8 - Two arguments against mimetical approaches to narrative. Part 7 of 8 - «Narrative is not given, it is a construct». Part 8 of 8 - The proteus principle. the many-to-many correspondence between forms and functions.