Scientific Study of Literature - Volume 7, Issue 2, 2017

Filmmakers must rely on cinematic devices of perspective (close-ups and point-of-view shot sequencing) to emphasize facial expressions associated with affective states. This study explored the extent to which differences in the use of these devices across two films that have the same content lead to differences in the understanding of the affective states of characters. Participants viewed one of two versions of the films and made affective judgments about how characters felt about one another with respect to saddness and anger. The extent to which the auditory and visual contexts were present when making the judgments was varied across four experiments. The results of the study showed judgments about sadness differed across the two films, but only when the entire context (sound and visual input) were present. The results are discussed in the context of the role of facial expressions and context in inferring basic emotions.

Stories with twist endings are popular, but little research has examined how readers experience them. To begin developing such an account, we examined the affective responses that emerge during stories with twist endings. In Experiment 1, 28 Japanese participants read a story with a twist ending. Greater empathy and stronger expectations were associated with slower reading times during participants’ first reading of the story. However, on participants’ second reading, greater empathy and stronger expectations were associated with faster reading times. In Experiment 2, we tested the generality of these effects by asking 36 English-speaking participants to read four stories with twist endings. The results were similar to Experiment 1. Readers’ initial and recurring responses to stories with twist endings reflect changes in surprise and empathy. These feelings underlie engagement with and interest in unexpected and often incoherent contents, which are characteristics of stories with twist endings.

Through multiple versions of Prelude, readers can follow the progress of a poem 41 years in the making, a period that exceeds by far the timeline of its narration. To do so I employed automated analysis platforms LIWC ( Pennebaker, Chung, Ireland, Gonzales, & Booth, 2007a ) and SEANCE ( Crossley, Kyle, & McNamara, 2016 ). Results reveal that Wordsworth exhibited habits of mind resonant with maturation, especially in his increased positivity and abstraction. Discriminant function analysis revealed four psychological markers that almost completely identified shifts between editions. Indices connoting trust and sadness, as well as positive adjectives and the cognitive indicator of exclusion, accounted for 63 percent of the variance. The study offers a methodology for considering multiple versions of any text in which the passage of time becomes an important marker. I present these findings within a digital humanities framework and conclude by discussing applications.