Emotional effects of reading excerpts from short stories by James Joyce

This study examined emotional responses to excerpts from short stories by James Joyce. Forty-eight introductory psychology students, including 24 males and 24 females, read four short story excerpts from James Joyce's Dubliners each divided into four segments of equal length. Two of the short story excerpts had unifying Emotional themes, while two others were Descriptively dense. Readers were instructed either to be spectators and feel sympathy for the protagonist (Spectator Set) or to imagine what it is like to be the protagonist (Identification Set). Set and story type were factorially combined in a within-subjects design. After reading each segment, subjects indicated whether they felt a 'fresh emotion' and/or an 'emotional memory', rated each kind of experience on 1 l-point scales measuring Pleasure, Intensity, and Tension, and also indicated if they experienced specific Primary Emotions (e.g., happiness, anger). Afterwards, they were given a two-choice recognition memory task pertaining to setting and person-oriented details. Results showed that 'fresh emotions' were elicited more frequently than 'emotional memories', though the memories were rated as more Pleasant, Tense, and Intense. The Emotional excerpts prompted fresh emotions and emotional memories almost equally, whereas Descriptively dense passages evoked more fresh emotions than memories. The results show that identification makes readers experience 'fresh emotions' in the moment in response to the Descriptive texts, while being a spectator directs readers toward their 'emotional memories'. Overall, differences in the kinds of emotional effects (tendencies towards fresh emotions versus emotion memories) arose both with variations in textual properties and in the reader's psychological set.

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