Understanding and Appreciating Literary Texts Through Rereading

Abstract

Previous research showed an emerging appreciation of literary narratives on second reading, whereas such effects fail to occur for the same narratives depleted of literary features. This might suggest that appreciation is associated with readers' acknowledgment of the purposefulness of literary devices on rereading. It may also be that the increase in appreciation is caused by a general sense of increased comprehension, a more common effect that may also occur on rereading nonliterary narratives. Three studies were conducted in which participants reread either original literary texts or manipulated versions in which literary style aspects were normalized. Using linear mixed models we examined the relationship between levels of literariness, perceived comprehension, and appreciation as well as the mediating influence of participants' reading experience. The results show that an increase in appreciation seems mainly related to an increase in perceived comprehension, independent of the level of literariness.

Reading and Rereading: Insights Into Literary Evaluation

“…Other investigations, notably Hakemulder (2004), Zyngier et al (2007), Hakemulder & Kuijpers (2017), report similar results, namely that evaluative responses to quality literary texts rise on a second reading.…”

“…Additionally, to see whether frequency of reading plays a role, after the second reading the respondents completed the ART test, specifically adapted for the Ukrainian audience (see Appendix 2), derived from Stanovich & West (1989), Mol & Bus (2011) and Hakemulder & Kuijpers (2017). The list of names (42 items total) included 6 authors of Ukrainian / Russian literary fiction, 6 authors of Ukrainian / Russian popular fiction, 9 authors of international literary fiction, 9 authors of international popular fiction and 12 foils.…”

Re-reading in stylistics

“…Hakemulder and colleagues (Hakemulder, 2004(Hakemulder, , 2007Kuijpers and Hakemulder, 2017;Zyngier, van Peer and Hakemulder, 2007). However, while adding support to Dixon et al's discovery of 'emergent effects' across readings, what 'it is exactly that emerges', or the nature of the processing and resultant reader experiences during re-reading, remains unclear (Kuijpers and Hakemulder, 2017: 2).…”

“…However, while adding support to Dixon et al's discovery of 'emergent effects' across readings, what 'it is exactly that emerges', or the nature of the processing and resultant reader experiences during re-reading, remains unclear (Kuijpers and Hakemulder, 2017: 2). Kuijpers and Hakemulder (2017) propose that an increase in comprehension may underlie increased appreciation, drawing connections with the changing allocation of cognitive resources during rereading observed in the work of Millis and colleagues (Millis, 1995;Millis et al, 1998; see also Rawson, Dunlosky and Thede, 2000). Understanding the nature of this changing experience requires recognition that reading both literary and non-literary texts involves multiple challenges: not only comprehending the foregrounded style choices of an author, but also 'how the events described make up the plot, what the interrelationships between characters are, what their behavioural motives are,…”

“…Finally, while discussions of re-reading can be found based on naturalistic and experimental reader response data (e.g. Bradan, 2012;Cui, 2017;Kuijpers and Hakemulder, 2017), there has been no sustained treatment of first and second reading experiences in stylistic or cognitive stylistic terms. While recognising that re-reading is an intrinsic part of stylistic analysis and a pervasive feature of reader experiences outside academia, it seems that this practice has yet to be properly scrutinized.…”