Thick Viewing. Emotional condensation and moments of narrative impact in fiction film
In an audience study empirical examples of narrative impact is presented when specific fiction film scenes condensate spectators’ emotional lives, identities, and beliefs. The outcome of conducted in-depth interviews with film viewers in Sweden 2012, discussing favorite films, will support theories about stories as a primary mean by which we make sense of our experience through time. It calls for a development of theories which in more detail explores spectator’s narrative competence when being absorbed by fiction. It challenges theories of fiction emotions and proposes a more complex analysis of the passionate viewer. A conclusion is that narrative impact is partly related to fiction emotions but most importantly when spectators are testing the narrative for a larger significance beyond the media, connecting diegetical fiction experiences with spectator’s profound aspirations in life and experienced conflicts of human existence in extra-diegetical world.
Tomas Axelson
Assistant Professor, Religious Studies
School of Education and Humanities
Högskolan Dalarna University, 791 88 Falun, Sweden