Article published In: Scientific Study of Literature
Vol. 5:2 (2015) ► pp.178–182
Measuring literary experience
Comment on Jacobs (2016)
Published online: 28 July 2016
https://doi.org/10.1075/ssol.5.2.03dix
https://doi.org/10.1075/ssol.5.2.03dix
Jacobs (2016) raises a number of insightful and provocative points about the study of literary experience, including the importance of development, the promise of process models, and the role of quantitative methods. In the present comment, we first elaborate on one aspect of the literary experience that seems to be neglected by his introductory comments, namely, that that experience is not limited to the act of reading but can easily extend to long after the reading is completed. Based on this insight, we then offer an analysis of the types of measurements that might be used in the empirical study of literary processing. While this analysis is not necessarily incompatible with Jacob’s discussion, we believe that it offers several new insights that are not readily apparent.
References (9)
Green, M.C., & Brock, T.C. (2000). The role of transportation in the persuasiveness of public narratives. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 79(5), 701–721.
Jacobs, A. (2016). The scientific study of literary experience: Sampling the state of the art. Scientific Study of Literature, 5(2).
Kuiken, D., Phillips, L., Gregus, M., Miall, D.S., Verbitsky, M., & Tonkonogy, A. (2004). Locating self-modifying feelings within literary reading. Discourse Processes, 38(2), 267–286.
Postman, L., & Senders, V.L. (1946). Incidental learning and generality of set. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 361, 153–165.
Reichle, E.D., Pollatsek, A., Fisher, D.L., & Rayner, K. (1998). Toward a model of eye movement control in reading. Psychological Review, 105(1), 125–157.
Silverberg, L.I. (2003). Bibliotherapy: The therapeutic use of didactic and literary texts in treatment, diagnosis, prevention, and training. The Journal of the American Osteopathic Association, 103(3), 131–135.
Verleger, R. (1988). Event-related potentials and cognition: A critique of the context updating hypothesis and an alternative interpretation of P3. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 11(3), 343–356.
Wheeler, S.P. (2007). So who is the little lady who started this great war. [Web page] Retrieved from: [URL].
Cited by (13)
Cited by 13 other publications
Papp-Zipernovszky, Orsolya, Anne Mangen, Arthur Jacobs & Jana Lüdtke
Hugentobler, Katharina Gloria & Jana Lüdtke
Kuijpers, Moniek M.
2021.
Postscript. In Style and Reader Response [Linguistic Approaches to Literature, 36], ► pp. 217 ff.
Jacobs, Arthur M., Berenike Herrmann, Gerhard Lauer, Jana Lüdtke & Sascha Schroeder
Xue, Shuwei, Arthur M. Jacobs & Jana Lüdtke
Nenadić, Filip, Dušan Vejnović & Slobodan Marković
Jacobs, Arthur M. & Roel M. Willems
Mangen, Anne, Anne Charlotte Begnum, Anežka Kuzmičová, Kersti Nilsson, Mette Steenberg & Hildegunn Støle
Jacobs, Arthur M. & Annette Kinder
Jacobs, Arthur M., Sarah Schuster, Shuwei Xue & Jana Lüdtke
van Krieken, Kobie, Hans Hoeken & José Sanders
Jacobs, Arthur M.
2016. The scientific study of literary experience and neuro-behavioral responses to literature. Scientific Study of Literature 6:1 ► pp. 164 ff.
Jacobs, Arthur M., Jana Lüdtke, Arash Aryani, Burkhard Meyer-Sickendieck & Markus Conrad
2016. Mood-empathic and aesthetic responses in poetry reception. Scientific Study of Literature 6:1 ► pp. 87 ff.
This list is based on CrossRef data as of 4 december 2025. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.