Affective Narratology: The Representation of Anxiety in Fictional Narrative

Abstract

The present article attempts to reveal forms of representation of anxiety in fictional narrative. We propose to consider two main ways of representation of the narrative anxiety: Mimetic and Diegetic, which are constructed based on three parameters: (1) orientation towards the subject vs. the event; (2) participation in construction of the narrative intrigue, and (3) explicit (“semiotic”) vs implicit (“cognitive”) form of representation of the narrative. Analysis of the narrative anxiety representation is based on recent research in the field of cognitive narratology and affective narratology, as well as on a semiotic approach to text analysis.