Laurie Maguire

Textual formations and reformations

Valuable to cultural historians and textual scholars alike, this volume analyzes the development of textual theory and practice in the twentieth century, questioning not just the assumptions and methodologies of textual study but its very genesis, as well as current definitions of the field.

Emotional arousal when watching drama increases pain threshold and social bonding

Fiction, whether in the form of storytelling or plays, has a particular attraction for us: we repeatedly return to it and are willing to invest money and time in doing so. Why this is so is an evolutionary enigma that has been surprisingly underexplored. We hypothesize that emotionally arousing drama, in particular, triggers the same neurobiological mechanism (the endorphin system, reflected in increased pain thresholds) that underpins anthropoid primate and human social bonding. We show that, compared to subjects who watch an emotionally neutral film, subjects who watch an emotionally arousing film have increased pain thresholds and an increased sense of group bonding.

Shakespeare's Names

Introduction 1. Whats in a name? 2. The patronym: Montague and Capulet 3. The mythological name: Helen 4. The diminutive name: Kate 5. The place name: Ephesus Works Cited

Othello : language and writing

Preface Introduction 1. Language in Print 2. Language: Forms and Uses 3. Language Through Time 4. Writing and Language Skills Further Reading

Individual Differences in Transportation Into Narrative Drama.

Transportation, the experience of feeling “transported” into a fictional world, differs widely across individuals. We examined transportation in 3 studies. Study 1 investigated links between individual differences in various measures of audience response, whereas the latter 2 studies examined links between trait measures (independent variables) and audience response (dependent variables). Study 1 found that individual differences in self-reported transportation to a film explained variation in virtually all other dependent measures, such as identification with characters, emotion, and attribution of blame for the protagonists struggles. Group bonding after watching the film was nonlinearly related to endorphin response (as measured by pain threshold), and transportation related to these variables as well (although more weakly). Study 2 found that individual differences in celebrity worship predicted transportation, as well as tendency to identify with the characters and approve of their behavior. Study 3 demonstrated that individual differences in trait measures of sensation seeking and empathy independently predicted viewers’ transportation in 2 very different film genres. Transportation measures for both films were highly correlated, suggesting that tendency to be transported may be less genre-specific than other dependent measures. Altogether, these results illustrate the usefulness of individual differences approaches in the psychological study of fiction.

A Christmas renaissance

Modern drama’s fascination with medicine has illustrious roots, find S Dholakia and colleagues