(Re-)Constructing Perspective Narrative Structures and Psychological Effects in Reading Literary Texts

• Applicants: Professor Dr. Gerhard Lauer; Dr. Jana Lüdtke; Professor Dr. Sascha Schroeder
• Subject Area: German Literary and Cultural Studies (Modern German Literature) ; General, Cognitive and Mathematical Psychology
• Term: since 2025
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 556163764

Since the 'rise of the novel' in the eighteenth century and the modern subjectivization of poetry, perspectives have become an important feature of literature in general, and literature is seen as an exercise in perspectives. The proposed transdisciplinary project is primarily concerned with the different possibilities of representing a narrative world and their specific effects on readers – i.e., the impact of certain textual features on the reading process. The overall goal of this project is to explore the role of perspective cues in narrative texts through theoretical, psychological, and computer-assisted means. Three approaches – the production aspects (creative writing), the textual dimensions (narratology) and the reception aspects (empirical psychology) – are realized in three major steps, to which each discipline contribute its specific expertise: 1. A systematic review of the supposed effects of narrative perspective cues on the reading process in narratology, creative writing and empirical studies. 2. A detailed analysis of how different perspective cues are used together in literary texts, and how sequences of such patterns are dynamically processed while reading. 3. Investigations into readers’ explicit responses to narrative perspectives cues during the reading process, story recall, and text recommendations.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• International Connection: Austria
• Partner Organisation: Fonds zur Förderung der wissenschaftlichen Forschung (FWF)
• Cooperation Partner: Professor Dr. Günther Stocker