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Chapter 5. Experiencing horrible worlds

  • Lizzie Stewart-Shaw
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Experiencing Fictional Worlds
This chapter is in the book Experiencing Fictional Worlds

Abstract

In this chapter, I explore how conceptual movement within the fictional worlds of horror can affect the reader’s emotional experience of the text. I argue that horror fiction necessarily requires “horrible” world-building elements and function-advancing propositions to establish the macabre ambience of the fictional world, which contributes to the reader’s experience of negative emotions such as anxiety and fear. Once this uncomfortable world is established, various types of world creation can manipulate the reader’s attention to bring about such negative emotional responses. Drawing on Text World Theory (Gavins 2007) and attention and resonance (Stockwell 2009a) to investigate this phenomenon, I conduct a stylistic analysis of how the text-worlds of Stephen King’s IT (1986) are built and experienced by readers.

Abstract

In this chapter, I explore how conceptual movement within the fictional worlds of horror can affect the reader’s emotional experience of the text. I argue that horror fiction necessarily requires “horrible” world-building elements and function-advancing propositions to establish the macabre ambience of the fictional world, which contributes to the reader’s experience of negative emotions such as anxiety and fear. Once this uncomfortable world is established, various types of world creation can manipulate the reader’s attention to bring about such negative emotional responses. Drawing on Text World Theory (Gavins 2007) and attention and resonance (Stockwell 2009a) to investigate this phenomenon, I conduct a stylistic analysis of how the text-worlds of Stephen King’s IT (1986) are built and experienced by readers.

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. List of contributors vii
  4. Preface xi
  5. Acknowledgments xiii
  6. Chapter 1. Introduction 1
  7. Part 1. Foundations of fictional worlds
  8. Chapter 2. Immersion and emergence in children’s literature 15
  9. Chapter 3. A predictive coding approach to Text World Theory 33
  10. Chapter 4. World-building as cognitive feedback loop 53
  11. Part 2. Forming fictional worlds
  12. Chapter 5. Experiencing horrible worlds 75
  13. Chapter 6. Framing the narrative 97
  14. Chapter 7. Constructing inferiority through comic characterisation 119
  15. Chapter 8. Cognitive grammar and reconstrual 135
  16. Part 3. Fictional worlds in context
  17. Chapter 9. Immersive reading and the unnatural text-worlds of “Dead Fish” 157
  18. Chapter 10. Experiencing literature in the poetry classroom 177
  19. Chapter 11. Sharing fiction 199
  20. Chapter 12. Afterword 219
  21. Subject index 225
https://doi.org/10.1075/lal.32.05ste

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. List of contributors vii
  4. Preface xi
  5. Acknowledgments xiii
  6. Chapter 1. Introduction 1
  7. Part 1. Foundations of fictional worlds
  8. Chapter 2. Immersion and emergence in children’s literature 15
  9. Chapter 3. A predictive coding approach to Text World Theory 33
  10. Chapter 4. World-building as cognitive feedback loop 53
  11. Part 2. Forming fictional worlds
  12. Chapter 5. Experiencing horrible worlds 75
  13. Chapter 6. Framing the narrative 97
  14. Chapter 7. Constructing inferiority through comic characterisation 119
  15. Chapter 8. Cognitive grammar and reconstrual 135
  16. Part 3. Fictional worlds in context
  17. Chapter 9. Immersive reading and the unnatural text-worlds of “Dead Fish” 157
  18. Chapter 10. Experiencing literature in the poetry classroom 177
  19. Chapter 11. Sharing fiction 199
  20. Chapter 12. Afterword 219
  21. Subject index 225
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