Fictionality and perceived realism in experiencing stories: A model of narrative comprehension and engagement
Busselle and Bilandzic propose a mental-models framework in which audiences build representations of a story's events, characters and setting and become absorbed when the building runs smoothly. Knowing a story is fictional does not disrupt this; clashes with the real world (external realism) or inconsistency with the story's own rules (narrative realism) do. The paper is a theoretical synthesis and reports no new experiment. Communication Theory 18(2), 255-280, 2008.
Busselle and Bilandzic propose a mental-models framework in which audiences build representations of a story's events, characters and setting and become absorbed when the building runs smoothly. Knowing a story is fictional does not disrupt this; clashes with the real world (external realism) or inconsistency with the story's own rules (narrative realism) do. The paper is a theoretical synthesis and reports no new experiment. Communication Theory 18(2), 255-280, 2008.
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Busselle, R. W., & Bilandzic, H. (2008). Fictionality and perceived realism in experiencing stories: A model of narrative comprehension and engagement. Communication Theory, 18(2), 255-280. doi:10.1111/j.1468-2885.2008.00322.x https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2885.2008.00322.x