76 research outputs found
Hoe lezers lijden lezen. Een casus uit de empirische esthetica
Get PDFWat hebben literatuur en psychologie elkaar vandaag de dag nog te bieden, nu wij niet langer met Freud alle verhalen als uitingen van onbewuste castratieangst zien? In dit artikel laat Emy Koopman, afgestudeerd in zowel de Literatuurwetenschap als de Psychologie, zien hoe de twee vakgebieden door een empirische benadering van de literatuur met elkaar te verenigen zijn. Literatuurwetenschappers kunnen wel blijven gissen naar de betekenis van een tekst, en eindeloos discussiëren over hun interpretatie ervan, maar wat vinden de lezers? Emy Koopman doet verslag van haar onderzoek naar lezersreacties op verkrachtingsscènes en demonstreert daarmee onder meer dat de schoonheid van de tekst de walging om de inhoud ervan niet uitsluit
Reading in times of loss: An exploration of the functions of literature during grief
Get PDF__Abstract__
This study examined the use of literature as a coping strategy among people who had experienced loss, comparing it to the use of music. Theory suggested that these artistic media can facilitate insight, recognition, support, relaxation, new emotions, and/or distraction. Among 198 respondents, 64 (32%) reported using neither medium during their grief period, 65 (33%) used only music, 19 (10%) used only literature, and 50 (25%) used both. Using artistic media was related to an emotional experience of the loss in two ways: 1) preference for emotion-focused coping was greater among those who used artistic media, 2) those who had used artistic media also reported greater impact of the loss. Reading was most strongly associated with distraction and listening to music with recognition. For those using both media, this suggests a coping process that alternates between distraction and recognition, in line with the Dual Process Model of Coping with Bereavement
Predictors of insight and catharsis among readers who use literature as a coping strategy
No full textFatale vrouwen: natuurlijk of tegennatuurlijk? Verbeeldingen van vrouwelijkheid en natuur in het negentiende-eeuwse decadentisme
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Reading suffering : an empirical inquiry into empathic and reflective responses to literary narratives
Get PDFIncestuous rape, abjection, and the colonization of psychic space in Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye and Shani Mootoo’s Cereus Blooms at Night
Get PDFToni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye (1970) and Shani Mootoo’s Cereus Blooms at Night
(1996) both apply a strategy of connecting rape to other forms of oppression, suggesting
that incest is at least partly the result of the dynamics of being colonized and
“othered”. This article brings out the problematics of closely associating colonization
and (incestuous) rape by exploring the associations made in these two novels. It uses
Kelly Oliver’s concept of “the colonization of psychic space” to argue that the novels
demonstrate that without a positive space of meaning, victims of racial oppression and
of sexual violence find themselves among the abjected. The close association made
between colonization and incest is criticized for ignoring the specificity of the processes
by which incest and rape function to make one feel abjected
Effects of "literariness" on emotions and on empathy and reflection after reading
Get PDFThis study investigated the effects of foregrounding on affective responses (i.e., emotions) during reading, and on empathy and reflection after reading, using both quantitative and qualitative measures. In addition, the influence of personal factors (trait empathy, personal experience, exposure to literature) on empathy and reflection was explored. Participants (N = 142) were randomly assigned to read 1 of 3 versions of an excerpt from a literary novel about the loss of a child. Versions differed in the level of foregrounded textual features: the "original" version possessed a high level of semantic, phonetic, and grammatical foregrounding; semantic foregrounding was removed in the manipulated version "without imagery" and semantic, phonetic and grammatical foregrounding were removed in the manipulated version "without foregrounding." Results showed that readers who had read the "original" version scored higher on empathy after reading than those who had read the version "without foregrounding." A quantitative analysis of qualitative data showed that participants reading the original version experienced significantly more ambivalent emotions than those in the version without foregrounding. Reflection did not seem to be influenced by foregrounding. Results suggest that personal factors may be more important in evoking reflection
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