What is literariness? Three components of literary reading

TLDR

Literariness has been criticized as lacking distinct characteristics, with postmodern theorists and cognitive psychologists arguing it shares no special traits with other texts. Analysis of readers’ responses to short stories and poems reveals processes beyond current situation models. Empirical studies show traces of literariness that cannot be explained by existing frameworks, supporting a three‑component model of stylistic features, defamiliarizing responses, and altered personal meanings.

Abstract

Abstract It is now widely maintained that the concept of literariness has been critically examined and found deficient. Prominent postmodern literary theorists have argued that there are no special characteristics that distinguish literature from other texts. Similarly, cognitive psychology has often subsumed literary understanding within a general theory of discourse processing. However, a review of empirical studies of literary readers reveals traces of literariness that appear irreducible to either of these explanatory frameworks. Our analysis of readers' responses to several literary texts (short stories and poems) indicates processes beyond the explanatory reach of current situation models. Such findings suggest a three‐component model of literariness involving foregrounded stylistic or narrative features, readers' defamiliarizing responses to them, and the consequent modification of personal meanings.