Leuven 2008

January 31st to February 2nd, 2008 University of Leuven, Belgium
 

Narratives create various phenomenological experiences in the audience such as the feeling of being psychologically transported into the story, of identifying with story characters, emoting for them, and also, losing track of actual time and location. Although usually aware of the artificial (if not fictional) nature of a story, the audience has intense emotional experiences while reading or viewing, and often adopts facts and attitudes implied by a story.

Research on narrative experience and effects is often interdisciplinary: Theories and methods cross disciplinary borders of communications, literature, philosophy, social, cognitive and developmental psychology, as well as paradigms of qualitative and quantitative methodology. This specific characteristic has unique potential, but, at the same time, creates new theoretical and empirical problems. This workshop aims at bringing together scholars from different fields to discuss ongoing research, new empirical studies, specific theoretical and methodical problems relevant to the field, or unexpected empirical results and possible explanations.
 

Organisation: Jan Van den Bulck, University of Leuven; Helena Bilandzic, University of Erfurt.