Into film: Does absorption in a movie's story world pose a paradox?

F Hakemulder, M Kuijpers, E Tan, K Balint, MM Doicaru

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingChapterScientificpeer-review

4 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Most film viewers know the experience of being deeply absorbed in the story of a popular film. It seems that at such moments they lose awareness of watching a movie. And yet it is highly unlikely that they completely ignore the fact that they watch a narrative and technological construction. Perhaps film viewers experience being in a story world while simultaneously being aware of its construction. Such a dual awareness would seem paradoxical, because the experience of the one would go at the cost of the other. We argue that the solution of this paradox requires dropping the notion of an undivided consciousness, and replacing it with one of consciousness as coming in degrees. In this chapter we present both cognitive and film-analytic arguments for differential awareness of story and narration/technology, and argue that a characteristic of absorption is to be found in story world super-consciousness.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationNarrative absorption
EditorsF Hakemulder, M Kuijpers, E Tan, K Balint, MM Doicaru
Place of PublicationAmsterdam
PublisherJohn Benjamins Publisher Company
Pages97-118
Number of pages22
ISBN (Electronic)9789027265135
ISBN (Print)9789027234162
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2017

Publication series

NameLinguistic Approaches to Literature
Volume27
ISSN (Print)1569-3112

Keywords

  • Absorption
  • Attention
  • Consciousness
  • Continuity
  • Film technology
  • Narrative
  • Presence
  • Transportation
  • Visual narrative grammar

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