Literary Form and Cultural Norm ? Preliminary Investigations for a Study of Reader Experience of a Fictitious Character

Abstract

The preliminary investigations for an experimental study of the experience of a fictitious character during reading proved to be interesting in several ways. For not only did the pilot experiments serve as a basis for the continuation of the project. In spite of – or rather due to – certain difficulties they also exhibited an example of the way experimental psychology can be used in the study of literature; they showed how literary analysis and reader response research can supplement each other; they demonstrated how, in a specific situation, the hermeneutical problem surfaced as a problem of practical methodology; and they revealed the cultural or ethical norm, which – I contend – is inherent in the literary form or work and is to be found in the reader's experience: a precondition for the reader's understanding of the literary work.