Suspense is the Key. Narratology, Cognitive Neurosciences and Computer Technology

L'articolo indaga i meccanismi neurocognitivi alla base della suspense sia in ambito letterario che filmico

Evaluating Musical Foreshadowing of Videogame Narrative Experiences

We experiment with mood-expressing, procedurally gener-ated music for narrative foreshadowing in videogames, in-vestigating the relationship between music and the player’s experience of narrative events in a game. We designed and conducted a user study in which the game’s music expresses true foreshadowing in some trials (e.g. foreboding music before a negative event) and false foreshadowing in others (e.g. happy music that does not lead to a positive event). We observed players playing the game, recorded analytics data, and had them complete a survey upon completion of the gameplay. Thirty undergraduate and graduate students participated in the study. Statistical analyses suggest that the use of musical cues for narrative foreshadowing induces a better perceived consistency between music and game narra-tive. Surprisingly, false foreshadowing was found to enhance the player’s enjoyment

Generating game narratives with focalization and flashbacks

In this paper we describe a system for generating textual narrations of what happened in a simulation-based serious game, focusing on the use of focalization (telling the story from the perspective of one of the characters) and flashbacks to give the player insights into the internal state of non-player characters

Ironia e foreshadowing: uma análise do conto Charles, de Shirley Jackson

The way Shirley Jackson addresses a real issue (family life), presenting and describing everyday life situations (trickeries of a child at school and at home) and intertwining the lies and manipulations of a child/protagonist in such a well-constructed way causes an immediate interest in "Charles". In addition, this tale has its plot improved with the employment of irony and foreshadowing. We intend to briefly explain what is meant by these literary devices, pointing out their recurrence and analyzing how they are intertwined in this narrative in order to create an atmosphere of uncertainties and expectations until the moment of its denouement. This work is based on bibliographical research, primarily about the literary aspects mentioned above. It also includes a brief biographical research about the author’s life because we understand that, as regards Shirley Jackson, her life and work are closely related.A forma como Shirley Jackson aborda um tema real (convívio familiar), apresentando e descrevendo situações cotidianas da vida (peripécias de uma criança na escola e no lar) e entrelaçando as mentiras e manipulações de uma criança/protagonista de forma tão bem construída, causa interesse imediato por “Charles”. Observa-se que este conto otimiza seu enredo ao lidar com ironia e foreshadowing. Pretendemos assim expor sucintamente o que se entende por estes artifícios literários, apontando sua recorrência e analisando como eles estão entrelaçados nesta narrativa, de forma a criar incertezas e expectativas até o momento de seu desfecho. Este trabalho está baseado em pesquisa bibliográfica, primordialmente acerca dos aspectos literários supracitados. Inclui-se também uma breve pesquisa biográfica acerca da vida da autora por entendermos que, em se tratando de Shirley Jackson, vida e obra estão intimamente relacionadas

A Component-Based Architecture for Suspense Modelling

Suspense is a key narrative issue in terms of emotional gratification, influencing directly the way in which the audience experiences a story. Disciplines like psychology, neurology or e-learning study the suspense as the basis of useful techniques for the treatment of mental diseases or improving memory skills and the comprehension. In the field of creativity, it’s an essential cross strategy found in almost any book, film and video-game plots, regardless of technology and genre. With the objective of generating engaging stories, some automatic storytelling systems implement a suspense generation module. These systems are mainly based on narrative theories. However, we observe a lack of aspects from behavioral sciences, involving the study of empathy and emotional effect of scene objects in the audience. Generated plots with an adequate treatment of these features may involve benefits in areas as education and psychology. In this paper, we propose a component-based architectural model that firstly aims to identify and extract all these individual factors of the suspense from a scene; in a second step, the system calculates the level of suspense using a weighted corpus; in the last step, it alters those elements to increase or decrease the original suspense level and reassembles them in a new scene. Further, we discuss the model facing the development challenges and its practical implications.This work has been funded by the Andalusian Government under the University of Cadiz programme for Researching and Innovation in Education. This paper has been partially supported by the projects WHIM 611560 and PROSECCO 600653 funded by the European Commission, Framework Program 7, the ICT theme, and the Future and Emerging Technologies FET program.8 page

Visions of Aline: A Foreshadow of the Past

This thesis focuses on the first act of a coming-of-age YA novel. Visions of Aline is about a high school senior, Joey Astor. Having been diagnosed with schizophrenia four years ago, he’s been under a grand delusion that he is the school’s most feared bully. Unhappy that Joey is copying him, the real bully, Kaleb Kane, fights back. For four years, Joey and Kaleb have had a bitter and fierce rivalry. With the end of high school near, the two are determined to prove who rightfully deserves the title of the most feared. When Joey’s schizophrenic episodes start to worsen, and Kaleb is given the opportunity for change, the two have to determine if the title they are fighting for is who they truly are. The thesis explores not only the first act of the novel but also its themes, research, and the author’s hopeful takeaway for readers

THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE LYRICS AND THE VISUALS OF YOASOBI’S MUSIC VIDEO INTO THE NIGHT

This thesis entitled, "The Relationship Between the Lyrics and Visuals of YOASOBI's Music Video Into the Night" examines the relationship between the lyrics and the visuals. The research design applied is the qualitative approach making use of a close reading method to analyze the images/visuals and the lyrics. This close reading method's result is interpreted using Roland Barthes’ semiotic (denotation and connotation concept). Barthes’ denotation and connotation concept is used to interpret the meaning of the visuals. In addition, Carol Vernallis’ theory of music videos is also applied to analyze the relationship between the lyrics and the visuals in music videos. The researcher separates the scene into 8 scenes as the unit of analysis based on the plot depicted and appropriateness or relevance as the research object. The study's conclusions revealed that, in the first place, Into the Night depicts the story of a man who falls in love with a lady who repeatedly asks him to commit suicide until he finally decides to do it with her. Into the Night makes extensive use of metaphors to enhance the meaning and plot of the music video. Metaphors help to close narrative gaps and keep the story's meaning and message on track. The majority of the metaphors in Into the Night take the shape of doors, butterflies, and flowers, all of which have specific meanings in Japanese culture. The second findings are the connection between Into the Night's lyrics and visuals. These two elements can help when one cannot adequately explain or describe what is happening. The male character's feelings toward his female co-star are conveyed in this song's lyrics, ranging from adoration and love to rage when neglected. The visuals describe the atmosphere that occurs in the lyrics. It depicts the feeling of their initial encounter, harmony, fallout, and ultimate choice to suicide togethe

Improving the Fitness Function of an Evolutionary Suspense Generator Through Sentiment Analysis

The perception of suspense in stories is affected not only by general literary aspects like narrative structure and linguistic features, but also by anticipation and evocation of feelings like aversion, disgust or empathy. As such, it is possible to alter the feeling of suspense by modifying components of a story that convey these feelings to the audience. Based on a previous straightforward model of suspense adaptation, this paper describes the design, implementation and evaluation of a computational system that adapts narrative scenes for conveying a specific user-defined amount of suspense. The system is designed to address the impact of different types of emotional components on the reader. The relative weighted suspense of these components is computed with a regression model based on a sentiment analysis tool, and used as a fitness function in an evolutionary algorithm. This new function is able to identify the different weights on the prediction of suspense in aspects like outcome, decorative elements, or threat's appearance. The results indicate that this approach represents a significant improvement over the previous existing approach