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Chapter 11. Sharing fiction

A text-world approach to storytime
  • Sarah Jackson
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Experiencing Fictional Worlds
This chapter is in the book Experiencing Fictional Worlds

Abstract

In this chapter, I explore the pre-adult reading experience and assess what pre-school literary interaction can tell us about later adult literary cognition and the subjective experience of reading fiction. The cognitive-linguistic framework Text World Theory is applied to storytime discourse in order to examine the complexities of early reading practices. Throughout this chapter, I advocate an empirical approach to the examination of the pre-school reading experience and the discussion centres on data collected from real readers: specifically, reader dyads made up of a pre-school child aged between two and four years old and a parent, who regularly read a picture-book story together at home. The analysis presented in this chapter focuses on the storytime discourse of one of my adult–child pair participants, and looks specifically at the role of “interactive interpretation” and pictures on the pre-schooler’s literary experience. Overall, I argue that participants work together during storytime to negotiate meaning and assimilate their independent text-worlds for a coherent literary experience.

Abstract

In this chapter, I explore the pre-adult reading experience and assess what pre-school literary interaction can tell us about later adult literary cognition and the subjective experience of reading fiction. The cognitive-linguistic framework Text World Theory is applied to storytime discourse in order to examine the complexities of early reading practices. Throughout this chapter, I advocate an empirical approach to the examination of the pre-school reading experience and the discussion centres on data collected from real readers: specifically, reader dyads made up of a pre-school child aged between two and four years old and a parent, who regularly read a picture-book story together at home. The analysis presented in this chapter focuses on the storytime discourse of one of my adult–child pair participants, and looks specifically at the role of “interactive interpretation” and pictures on the pre-schooler’s literary experience. Overall, I argue that participants work together during storytime to negotiate meaning and assimilate their independent text-worlds for a coherent literary experience.

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.32.11jac

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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