36.2798, Books: Possible Worlds Theory and Readers' Emotional Responses to Literature: Mansworth (2025)

[The LINGUIST List]

LINGUIST List: Vol-36-2798. Wed Sep 17 2025. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 36.2798, Books: Possible Worlds Theory and Readers' Emotional Responses to Literature: Mansworth (2025)

Moderator: Steven Moran (linguist at linguistlist.org)
Managing Editor: Valeriia Vyshnevetska
Team: Helen Aristar-Dry, Mara Baccaro, Daniel Swanson
Jobs: jobs at linguistlist.org | Conferences: callconf at linguistlist.org | Pubs: pubs at linguistlist.org

Homepage: http://linguistlist.org

Editor for this issue: Mara Baccaro <mara at linguistlist.org>

================================================================


Date: 17-Sep-2025
From: Lucy Trotter [lucy.trotter at bloomsbury.com]
Subject: Possible Worlds Theory and Readers' Emotional Responses to Literature: Mansworth (2025)


Title: Possible Worlds Theory and Readers' Emotional Responses to
Literature
Publication Year: 2025

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
           http://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/
Book URL:
https://www.bloomsbury.com/possible-worlds-theory-and--readers-emotional-responses-to-literature-9781350428935/

Author(s): Megan Mansworth

Hardback, ISBN: 9781350428935, Price: £95.00

Abstract:

This book develops a cognitive stylistic exploration of readers'
emotional experiences of literature.
Adopting Possible Worlds Theory as a framework, the volume constructs
a stylistic analysis of some of the ways in which novels elicit
readers' emotions. A typology of past, present, and future textual
actual and possible worlds is formulated to frame analysis of three
novels: A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry, Revolutionary Road by
Richard Yates, and The Trick Is to Keep Breathing by Janice Galloway.
The author integrates close stylistic analysis with the use of
empirical data drawn from reader interviews and online reader reviews.
The analysis of these diverse 20th-century novels works to show the
utility of the typology for analysis formulated for this book, as well
as to demonstrate the value of incorporating empirical reader data in
analysis of the ways in which novels may affect readers' emotions.

Linguistic Field(s): Cognitive Science
                     General Linguistics
                     Psycholinguistics




------------------------------------------------------------------------------

********************** LINGUIST List Support ***********************
Please consider donating to the Linguist List, a U.S. 501(c)(3) not for profit organization:

https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=87C2AXTVC4PP8

LINGUIST List is supported by the following publishers:

Bloomsbury Publishing http://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/

Cambridge University Press http://www.cambridge.org/linguistics

Cascadilla Press http://www.cascadilla.com/

De Gruyter Brill https://www.degruyterbrill.com/?changeLang=en

Edinburgh University Press http://www.edinburghuniversitypress.com

John Benjamins http://www.benjamins.com/

Language Science Press http://langsci-press.org

MIT Press http://mitpress.mit.edu/

Multilingual Matters http://www.multilingual-matters.com/

Narr Francke Attempto Verlag GmbH + Co. KG http://www.narr.de/

Netherlands Graduate School of Linguistics / Landelijke (LOT) http://www.lotpublications.nl/

Peter Lang AG http://www.peterlang.com


----------------------------------------------------------
LINGUIST List: Vol-36-2798
----------------------------------------------------------