This Issue

Authors

  • Editors / Herausgeber

Abstract

Now in its fifth year, DIEGESIS continues to explore and reflect on the dynamic changes in cross-disciplinary narrative research. In order to focus even more clearly on emergent work at the interface between literary studies, linguistics, psychology and other disciplines engaging with narrative, storytelling practice and narrative comprehension, we are now introducing a new format in the shape of special issues compiled by guest editors.

“Empirical Approaches to Narrative” is the first in a series of collaborations with external experts who will enable us to cover the wide range of theoretical, methodological and interpretive projects that contribute to narratological knowledge. Special issues will be solicited at irregular intervals, but unsolicited proposals can also be submitted to the Editorial Board at any time. Guest editors will take responsibility for contacting authors, organizing the review process, and selecting and compiling papers for publication.

We wish to thank our first guest editors in this venture, Marisa Bortolussi, Peter Dixon and Roy Sommer, for successfully launching the series with an issue dedicated to studies of narrative using empirical methods such as reading experiments, questionnaires and computer-aided tagging. In this issue, in addition to four research papers with a focus on empirical and experimental takes on narrative, we offer our readers four book reviews and a conference report by Gabriele Lucius-Hoene with an overview of the proceedings of the international conference on “Illness Narratives in Practice” at the University of Freiburg’s Institute of Psychology (June 26-27, 2015). The issue’s “My Narratology” section features an interview with Susan S. Lanser, an eminent narratologist and pioneer of feminist literary theory, who reflects on her influences, reveals why she would take Charles Dickens’ Bleak House to a lonely island, and suggests that narratology can offer a fresh perspective on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

We wish you an interesting read!

Published

06/11/2016