how does literary texts affect the reader
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Explanation:
Previous research showed an emerging appreciation of literary narratives on second reading, whereas such effects fail to occur for the same narratives depleted of literary features. This might suggest that appreciation is associated with readers’ acknowledgment of the purposefulness of literary devices on rereading. It may also be that the increase in appreciation is caused by a general sense of increased comprehension, a more common effect that may also occur on rereading nonliterary narratives. Three studies were conducted in which participants reread either original literary texts or manipulated versions in which literary style aspects were normalized. Using linear mixed models we examined the relationship between levels of literariness, perceived comprehension, and appreciation as well as the mediating influence of participants’ reading experience. The results show that an increase in appreciation seems mainly related to an increase in perceived comprehension, independent of the level of literariness.
Texts vary in the rewards they yield to their readers. This holds even more so for rereading them: For some texts one reading suffices, whereas others seem to promise there is more to be discovered on second reading. Consequently, some readers return to the novels they read years ago and find that either they or the book seem to have changed. They may feel the urge to revisit passages earlier on in a story they are reading, and they may feel compelled to read poems repeatedly before moving on to the next. Strangely enough, having prior knowledge of a text does not seem to curtail responses such as transportation (cf. Green et al., 2008), enjoyment (cf. Leavitt & Christenfeld, 2011), and strong aesthetic responses (Wassiliwizky, Koelsch, Wagner, Jacobsen, & Menninghaus, 2017). Qualitative data (Bálint, Hakemulder, Kuijpers, Tan, & Doicaru, 2016) suggest that when readers encounter deviating aspects in a text, they may choose to reread as part of their strategy to prolong their contact with the text, to disambiguate parts they feel uncertain about, or to slow down the pace of their reading as they experience an overpowering force of the narrative style. To the participants this rereading enhances rather than obstructs their engagement with the text.
arise, rather than mere improved information how the events described make up the plot, what the interrelationships between characters are, what their behavioral motives are, estimate the reliability of narrators, and so on. Processing these aspects may benefit from rereading, more or less independent of literary style. To investigate this possibility we designed a series of experiments in which we compared the influence of two factors on increases in appreciation: literariness of the texts and increases in perceived comprehension. Thus, we hoped to ).