Results
We have developed a novel paradigm of measuring suspense, and the suspense-arc of a range of texts was experimentally measured at a high level of granularity (word level).
For details, see (forthcoming): Maria Bentz, Maya Cortez-Espinoza, Vesela Simeonova, Tilmann Köppe, Edgar Onea: Measuring Suspense in Real Time: a New Experimental Methodology.
We have proposed a theory of narrative suspense that – in opposition to most classical approaches – takes the explanatory burden off of content-related notions such as danger, preferences, likelihood and importance and mainly focuses on the novel erotetic concept called potential inquiry terminating questions (PITQs).
For details, see: Köppe, T., Onea, E. The Nearly Missed Account of Narrative Suspense. In: Frontiers of Narrative Studies 9 (2023), 273-289.
Based on this theory, questions that emerge during the reading of narratives were annotated for a number of texts and a so-called ‘erotetic activation index’ was computed that showed a remarkable correlation with the measured suspense level. The main result of the project so far is the observation that a model based on activation of PITQs in a narrative captures a significant proportion of suspense-variation in various narratives at a high level of granularity.
For details: Wait …