Insights From Mental Model Theory and Cognitive Narratology as a Tool for Content Selection in Audio Description

One of the main questions in audio description (AD) to which no systematic answers have been provided yet, is how to decide what information you include in your description and – if there is not enough time to describe everything – how you prioritize that information. In the present paper I want to propose an answer to this problem by asking the question: how do audiences process (filmic) stories and what information do they need to process them? The basic idea underlying this question is that people process and interpret stories by creating mental models (Johnson-Laird, 1983) of these stories. The paper explains how these models are created, what information is necessary to create them and what is optional, thus helping describers to decide what information in their description is “need-to-have” and what is “nice-to-have”. The theoretical explanation will be applied to the opening of the film Slumdog millionaire (Boyle, 2008), to illustrate how the theory works and can be used in daily practice. Lay summary Audio description (AD) for film is a service for people with sight loss that weaves a verbal description of visual elements and unclear sound effects they do not have access to, between the dialogues of the original production. Since this description cannot interfere with the dialogues, there often is very little time for AD and describers will have to decide what to include and what to leave out of their descriptions. In this article, I present a way to tackle this problem, based on the basic idea that films generally tell stories and that the audio description should allow the target audience to recreate that story in their minds. More specifically I focus on two questions, namely a) how do audiences mentally recreate stories and b) what elements do they need to do so. Insights into these two questions will show audio describers what information the target audience needs to recreate the story told in the film, and hence will help them to decide what information they really need to include in their AD. After a theoretical exploration of these two questions, the approach will be illustrated by means of a concrete example, taken from the film Slumdog millionaire (Boyle, 2008).

How Readers Construct New Testament Characters: The Calling of Peter in the Gospels in Cognitive-Narratological Perspective

The discipline of cognitive narratology applies insights of cognitive linguistics to narrative analysis. This study seeks to demonstrate the value of cognitive narratology by exploring the role of the reader and the extent of the reader’s knowledge in constructing characters. While traditional narrative criticism often limits itself to the world of the text, cognitive narratology recognizes that the reader’s knowledge from other texts and the real world also contributes to the construction of characters. This study will show that the extent of the reader’s literary and social knowledge of a text affects the construction of characters. As a case study, we will examine the calling of Peter in the canonical Gospels and show how four readers with varying degrees of knowledge will arrive at different constructions of Peter’s character.

Dramatis Personae in the Acts of Peter: Character Identification and the Conveyance of Ethical Values

The Roman senator Marcellus plays a prominent role among the considerable number of characters mentioned in the apocryphal Acts of Peter. He was very important for the Christian community, and his house was a central meeting place for widows, orphans, foreigners, and the poor, before it became the residence of Simon Magus and his followers. By applying a specific approach of cognitive narratology and by taking serious an active participation of readers in analyzing a character more closely, this study intends to analyze the extent to which such an approach might help to perceive and understand Marcellus more appropriately and to highlight his function within the story and his impact on readers.

Emotion, Memory, Meaning, Directions: A Response to Kirsten Marie Hartvigsen and Thomas J. Kraus

This response article reviews the contributions of Kirsten Marie Hartvigsen and Thomas Kraus to this special issue, and uses them as the basis for a discussion of some theoretical and methodological issues relevant to cognitive narratology and cognitive literary studies more broadly. Without offering substantial answers itself, the response poses questions concerning (i) the compatibility of different scientific frameworks used in cognitive models of characterization, particularly in the light of currently dominant ‘4ea’ models of cognition (there is a particular focus on the relationship between affective and (other) cognitive aspects of reader response, and on the role of memory); and (ii) the adaptability of cognitive models to dealing with “synthetic” and “thematic” (as opposed to “mimetic”) aspects of literary character. A brief conclusion argues for two-way traffic between the cognitive sciences and literary criticism.

RE-ENACTMENTS OF THE PROLOGUE IN CUPID'S PALACE: AN IMMERSIVE READING OF APULEIUS’ STORY OF CUPID AND PSYCHE

This article offers a new interpretation of Apuleius’ story of Cupid and Psyche. Most scholars have previously offered a second-time reading of this story, according to which the reader reaches Book 11 and then looks back at Psyche's story of fall and redemption as a parallel for Lucius’ life. Following Graverini's and other scholars’ emotional approach to the Metamorphoses, I argue that the ecphrasis of Cupid's palace within the story of Cupid and Psyche includes multiple re-enactments of the novel's prologue. These re-enactments invite the reader to undertake a first-time and immersive reading of this story, which focusses on Psyche's experience of Cupid and her reaction to his epiphany. In its use of immersion, this article draws from recent developments in cognitive narratology and pushes scholars of Apuleius to focus on the reader's immersive and emotional response in order to reassess the value of a second-time reading of the Metamorphoses.

Mimesis and Experience: A Platonic Perspective on Ricoeur's Time and Narrative

Ricoeur's Time and Narrative is duly cited in footnotes but does not seem to have had a strong impact on anglophone narratology. One of the reasons for this is certainly Ricoeur's emphasis on plot, which does not harmonize with the focus on consciousness in cognitive narratology. This article suggests that a reconsideration of the concept of mimesis could help build a bridge between Ricoeur's phenomenological approach and cognitive studies in narrative. More specifically, it argues that Plato's discussion of poetry in the Republic, unanimously criticized by modern scholars, can enrich Ricoeur's concept of mimesis. While Ricoeur follows Aristotle, who ties mimesis to plot, Plato, in Republic 2 and 3, considers mimesis an act of impersonation and thereby paves the way to the level of character, on which cognitive narratologists tend to focus. This article first offers a new reading of the Republic's examination of poetry, trying to show that Plato's account of the effects of poetry on the listeners’ souls resonates with current cognitive approaches. Equipped with this reading, it then turns to Ricoeur again. Ricoeur's description of mimesis III, the reader's adoption of the narrative configuration of time in life, remains vague and abstract. Through its focus on the impact of characters on audiences, Plato's idea of mimesis permits us to integrate a cognitivist perspective into Ricoeur's phenomenological account.

The Interaction of Possible Worlds through the Prism of Cognitive Narratology

The article deals with the analysis of literary narrative where a possible unreal fictional world and a possible real fictional world usually coexist. When the norms of life plausibility are consciously violated, the real and the unreal possible worlds are emphatically opposed. Hence, their certain aspects are depicted in a fantastically exaggerated form. The interaction of possible worlds in a literary narrative destroys the stereotypes of the reader’s perception. It can occur in different planes: structural (a shift of plot elements of the story, transformation, unusual, sharp turns of the borrowed plot, violations of a plotline); fictional (a combination of real and fantastic features in one image); temporal (violations of the chronological flow of time, a shift of time flow); spatial (expansion or contraction of space, magical spatial formations, displacements, deformations). By their nature, the interaction of different possible worlds can be continuous, partial, and fragmentary; resulting from their boundaries may overlap or be violated (entirely or partially). The continuous interaction of different possible worlds, destruction of their borders, although they do not disappear completely, make them largely blurred, interpenetrating each other. In the case of partial interaction of possible worlds, their boundaries intersect. In the case of fragmentary interaction of possible worlds, their common points are slightly visible, for example, only the borrowed title of a literary work or a character’s name, or a fantastic concrete event or a place of the event.

Story beats in videogames as value-driven choice-based unit operations

We present a framework of story beats, defined as microunits of dramatic action, as a tool for the ludonarrative analysis of videogames. First, we explain the Goal - Action - Reaction - Outcome model of the story beat. Then, we present six types of story beats, Action, Interaction, Inaction, Mental, Emotion, and Sensory, providing videogame examples for each category. In the second half of the paper, we contextualise this framework in the classic game studies theory of videogame narrative and player action: unit operations, gamic action, anatomy of choice, and game design patterns, wrapping it up in the most recent trends in cognitive narratology. Ultimately, we present the story beat as a ludonarrative unit, working simultaneously as a ‘unit operation’ in the study of games as systems, and as a microunit of character action in narrative analysis. The conclusion outlines prospective directions for using story beats in formal, experiential, and cultural game research.

The Interaction of Possible Worlds through the Prism of Cognitive Narratology

The article deals with the analysis of literary narrative where a possible unreal fictional world and a possible real fictional world usually coexist. When the norms of life plausibility are consciously violated, the real and the unreal possible worlds are emphatically opposed. Hence, their certain aspects are depicted in a fantastically exaggerated form. The interaction of possible worlds in a literary narrative destroys the stereotypes of the reader’s perception. It can occur in different planes: structural (a shift of plot elements of the story, transformation, unusual, sharp turns of the borrowed plot, violations of a plotline); fictional (a combination of real and fantastic features in one image); temporal (violations of the chronological flow of time, a shift of time flow); spatial (expansion or contraction of space, magical spatial formations, displacements, deformations). By their nature, the interaction of different possible worlds can be continuous, partial, and fragmentary; resulting from their boundaries may overlap or be violated (entirely or partially). The continuous interaction of different possible worlds, destruction of their borders, although they do not disappear completely, make them largely blurred, interpenetrating each other. In the case of partial interaction of possible worlds, their boundaries intersect. In the case of fragmentary interaction of possible worlds, their common points are slightly visible, for example, only the borrowed title of a literary work or a character’s name, or a fantastic concrete event or a place of the event.