Articles and Book Chapters by Evert van Emde Boas
Social Psychology and the Ancient World, 2025
This chapter investigates scholia (ancient commentaries) on Greek tragedy and the kinds of social... more This chapter investigates scholia (ancient commentaries) on Greek tragedy and the kinds of social attribution in which they engage when discussing the characterization of characters in the plays. It is demonstrated that — in contrast to what is often stated in modern scholarship about ancient theory — ancient commentators do not prefer explanations for the behaviour of characters that see them as representative of particular types. Rather than relying on stereotypes, the most common generalizing explanations in the scholia discuss behaviour as related to certain types of situation rather than types of person. Other moders of explanation also occur, however: behaviour is explained (in declining order of frequency) as arising from individual character traits, or indeed from group stereotypes. Modern attribution theory, particularly the work of Malle, is applied to situate these kinds of explanations in typical folk-psychological models of behaviour explanation. In line with Malle’s theory, it is shown that most behaviour explanations in the scholia in fact refer to characters’ reasons for doing something rather than causes for their behaviour. The chapter ends with a discussion of the nature of the business of the scholia.
Backwards and Forwards in Sophocles’ Oedipus Tyrannus
Prolepsis in Ancient Greek Narrative: Definitions, Forms, and Effects, 2024
The characters of Sophocles’ Oedipus Tyrannus struggle to come to grips with the drama’s past, pr... more The characters of Sophocles’ Oedipus Tyrannus struggle to come to grips with the drama’s past, present and future—and for much of the play do not know which is which (the play’s key prolepses, the prophecies given to Laius and Oedipus, famously refer backwards by the time of the play). The central premise of this chapter is that the various intellectual and emotional strategies that we see the characters employ to make sense of their life stories model the pre-closural readerly effects discussed in this volume’s introduction, and so offer pertinent parallels for the experience of narrative and drama. The chapter’s three main sections focus on, respectively, the use of the past to predict the future in rational, probabilistic inferencing (especially in the play’s early scenes); the fear, hope, and suspense felt by the characters as the totality of Oedipus’ life story gradually becomes clear; and the importance of character, both for the figures of the play themselves as predictor of future behaviour, and for the audience as a reflection on different ways to relate to storytelling. The conclusion assesses the extent to which OT and other Sophoclean plays can be seen as being ‘about narrative’.
Frontiers in Psychology, 2023
Introduction: The human capacity to engage with fictional worlds raises important psychological q... more Introduction: The human capacity to engage with fictional worlds raises important psychological questions about the mechanisms that make this possible. Of particular interest is whether people respond differently to fictional stories compared to factual ones in terms of how immersed they become and how they view the characters involved and their actions. It has been suggested that fiction provides us with a 'fictive pass' that allows us to evaluate in a more balanced, detached way the morality of a character's behaviour. Methods: We use a randomised controlled experimental design to test this. Results and discussion: We show that, although knowing whether a substantial film clip is fact or fiction does not affect how engaged with ('transported' by) a troubling story an observer becomes, it does grant them a 'fictive pass' to empathise with a moral transgressor. However, a fictive pass does not override the capacity to judge the causes of a character's moral transgression (at least as indexed by a causal attribution task).
Mindreading, Character, and Realism: The Case of Medea
Minds on Stage: Greek Tragedy and Cognition, 2023
This chapter sets out to problematize applications of the concept of mindreading to literary char... more This chapter sets out to problematize applications of the concept of mindreading to literary characters in two ways. Firstly, based on a discussion of relevant debates in psychology and the philosophy of mind, it is argued that the exercise of making sense of literary characters is not straightforwardly analogous to everyday mindreading; rather, character interpretation typically relies on more specialized cognitive resources. Secondly, approaches based on mindreading as narrowly conceived can overlook crucial features of literary characters that have long been of interest within literary criticism (particularly under the header of ‘realism’): a more eclectic cognitive approach is needed to capture such aspects properly. The upshot of these general points is brought out in a reading of Euripides’ Medea, a play which both models and thematizes the unusual cognitive processes involved in making sense of its protagonist.
Cahiers du théâtre antique, 2023
This article investigates the characterization of Electra by examining aspects of her 'mind style... more This article investigates the characterization of Electra by examining aspects of her 'mind style'-a notion taken from Stylistics, based on the idea that distinctive patterns in a character's use of language reflect the workings of his or her mind. Three aspects of Electra's mind style are discussed, each connected to a particular linguistic pattern: (1) her sense of displacement from the royal palace, evident from the way in which she linguistically configures Argive space; (2) her sense of being deprived of an alternative life, evident from her use of negation and related expressions; and (3) her metaphorical conception of her existence as a kind of social death. Various concepts from cognitive linguistics, specifically construal and conceptual integration (blending), are applied in the analysis. Each of the investigated aspects points at a world view which focuses on the life which Electra is unable to live, because of the influence of her mother and Aegisthus. Cet article regarde la caractérisation d'Électre en examinant des aspects de son « mind style »-une notion tirée de la stylistique, basée sur l'idée que les motifs distinctifs dans le langage d'un personnage reflètent le fonctionnement de son esprit. Trois aspects du « mind style » d'Electra sont discutés, chacun lié à un motif linguistique : (1) son sentiment de déplacement du palais royal, évident de la manière dont elle configure linguistiquement l'espace argien ; (2) son sentiment d'être privé d'une vie alternative, évident de son utilisation de la négation ; et (3) sa conception métaphorique de son existence comme un mort sociale. Divers concepts de la linguistique cognitive, en particulier la théorie de l'interprétation (« construal ») et l'intégration conceptuelle (« blending »), sont appliqués dans l'analyse. Chacune des caractéristiques étudiées pointe vers une vision du monde qui se concentre sur la vie qu'Électre est incapable de vivre, en raison de l'influence de sa mère et d'Égisthe.
Mind Style, Cognitive Stylistics, and Ēthopoiia in Lysias
Trends in Classics, 2022
This paper approaches Lysianic ēthopoiia from the methodological perspective of ‘mind style’, a c... more This paper approaches Lysianic ēthopoiia from the methodological perspective of ‘mind style’, a concept taken from modern stylistics. It is argued that Lysias gave his speakers individualized speaking styles that are indicative of their characters. The narrative of Lysias 1 is used as test case, and the analysis is based on a variety of linguistic features (sentence length, particle usage, pronoun usage) and cognitive concepts (mindblindness, schemas, cognitive metaphor). It is argued that, in a variety of subtle ways, Euphiletus is portrayed linguistically as a simple man, unaware of the motives and actions of others, and as a passive experiencer rather than an active participant in his own story.
Im/Politeness and Conversation Analysis in Greek Tragedy: The Case of Theseus and the Herald in Euripides’ Supplices
Politeness in Ancient Greek and Latin, 2022
Deixis and World Building
A Companion to Greek Lyric, 2022
The concept of deixis refers to various ways in which aspects of the context of utterance (time, ... more The concept of deixis refers to various ways in which aspects of the context of utterance (time, place, participants) are encoded in language. This chapter evaluates the use of deictics in Greek lyric, examining spatial deixis, temporal deixis, and person deixis in turn. It is argued that, in spite of their potential appeal as ‘stable’ indicia of original performance contexts, deictics are in fact highly flexible, and often seem to be employed for effects of ambiguity. The chapter’s final section proposes that Text World Theory offers a useful model for the analysis of deictics in lyric, by foregrounding their role in imaginative world building.
Scienze dell'Antichità, 2022
Questo contributo indaga una particolare categoria di “versi riempitivi” tipici di alcuni dialogh... more Questo contributo indaga una particolare categoria di “versi riempitivi” tipici di alcuni dialoghi delle tragedie
greche: in essi il parlante B pone una domanda che incoraggia il completamento di un turno conversazionale
in corso da parte del parlante A. Facendo uso di alcune nozioni proprie dell’“analisi conversazionale”
(Conversation Analysis), il contributo reinterpreta questi casi come una forma stilizzata di un particolare
comportamento dell’ascolto, ovvero come “backchanneling”: anziché essere inutili e artificiosi, questi versi
imitano, in una forma particolare, il discorso naturale e inoltre ricoprono un ampio spettro di importanti
funzioni pragmatiche.
Fear and Loathing at the Xanthus
Emotions and Narrative in Ancient Literature and Beyond, 2022
Euripides (Speech in Ancient Greek Literature)
Speech in Ancient Greek Literature, 2021
E. van Emde Boas (2021), “Euripides”, in Speech in Ancient Greek Literature, ed. by M. de Bakker ... more E. van Emde Boas (2021), “Euripides”, in Speech in Ancient Greek Literature, ed. by M. de Bakker and I.J.F. de Jong, Leiden: Brill, 448-471.
Sophocles (Speech in Ancient Greek Literature)
Speech in Ancient Greek Literature, 2021
E. van Emde Boas (2021), “Sophocles”, in Speech in Ancient Greek Literature, ed. by M. de Bakker ... more E. van Emde Boas (2021), “Sophocles”, in Speech in Ancient Greek Literature, ed. by M. de Bakker and I.J.F. de Jong, Leiden: Brill, 428-447.
Aeschylus (Speech in Ancient Greek Literature)
Speech in Ancient Greek Literature, 2021
E. van Emde Boas (2021), “Aeschylus”, in Speech in Ancient Greek Literature, ed. by M. de Bakker ... more E. van Emde Boas (2021), “Aeschylus”, in Speech in Ancient Greek Literature, ed. by M. de Bakker and I.J.F. de Jong, Leiden: Brill, 407-427.
Biblical Interpretation, 2021
This response article reviews the contributions of Kirsten Marie Hartvigsen and Thomas Kraus to t... more This response article reviews the contributions of Kirsten Marie Hartvigsen and Thomas Kraus to this special issue, and uses them as the basis for a discussion of some theoretical and methodological issues relevant to cognitive narratology and cognitive literary studies more broadly. Without offering substantial answers itself, the response poses questions concerning (i) the compatibility of different scientific frameworks used in cognitive models of characterization, particularly in the light of currently dominant ‘4ea’ models of cognition (there is a particular focus on the relationship between affective and (other) cognitive aspects of reader response, and on the role of memory); and (ii) the adaptability of cognitive models to dealing with “synthetic” and “thematic” (as opposed to “mimetic”) aspects of literary character. A brief conclusion argues for two-way traffic between the cognitive sciences and literary criticism.
Pragmatic Approaches to Drama: Studies in Communication on the Ancient Stage, 2021
Differential Effects of Film Genre on Viewers’ Absorption, Identification,and Enjoyment
Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity and the Arts, 2020
Marketers, filmmakers, and cinema-goers assume that genre has a large effect on how the audience ... more Marketers, filmmakers, and cinema-goers assume that genre has a large effect on how the audience responds to and engages with a film. However, trait measures such as transportability suggest that, in some cases, individual differences may shape audience engagement more than genre does. To investigate this disparity, we compared viewers’ enjoyment, identification with characters, and story world absorption (including three subscales: Transportation, Attention, and Emotional Engagement) for film clips from two very different genres (an emotional family film vs. an action chase scene) in a within-subjects design. Across two studies—an exploratory study and a preregistered replication—we found that participants’ feelings of being transported into the narrative (a dimension of story world absorption) were more highly correlated across films than other measures were and tended to be less related to genre preference than the other audience response measures were. This pattern of results suggests that feelings of transportation may be more dependent on individual differences, and less sensitive to genre, than other forms of audience response. An exploratory analysis of a short scale measuring trait transportability suggested this measure was not the basis of the individual differences theorized to underlie transportation. Our results further highlight the importance of examining viewer engagement with narrative as a multidimensional, rather than unitary, concept.
Experience, Narrative, and Criticism in Ancient Greece: Under the Spell of Stories, 2019
The chapter draws on the psychological as well as everyday notion of ‘attention’ to analyse the e... more The chapter draws on the psychological as well as everyday notion of ‘attention’ to analyse the experience afforded by tragic messenger speeches. What marks out this experience, it is argued, is that attention shifts dynamically between not just two levels (the world of the play and the performance qua performance) but three: the offstage world of the messenger’s narrative, the messenger and his listeners onstage, and the performance qua performance. An awareness of this dynamic, it is suggested, can be detected in the iconography of messenger scenes on fourth-century pots. Euripides’ Andromache and Medea as well as Sophocles’ Electra serve as case studies for analysing the textual means by which the dramatists prompt ever-shifting patterns of attention, stimulating immersion in the narrative as well as drawing attention to the interactions occurring onstage. The chapter ends by looking to the psychology of attention to ask whether audiences are able to attend simultaneously to different levels or whether different objects of attention are in competition.
Journal of Classics Teaching, 2019
We outline our views on the need for a new Greek reference grammar, discuss our
methodological pr... more We outline our views on the need for a new Greek reference grammar, discuss our
methodological principles, and offer some thoughts on how the book may be useful as a teaching resource.
Individual Differences in Transportation Into Narrative Drama
Review of General Psychology, 2018
Transportation, the experience of feeling “transported” into a fictional world, differs widely ac... more Transportation, the experience of feeling “transported” into a fictional world, differs widely across individuals. We examined transportation in 3 studies. Study 1 investigated links between individual differences in various measures of audience response, whereas the latter 2 studies examined links between trait measures (independent variables) and audience response (dependent variables). Study 1 found that individual differences in self-reported transportation to a film explained variation in virtually all other dependent measures, such as identification with characters, emotion, and attribution of blame for the protagonist’s struggles. Group bonding after watching the film was nonlinearly related to endorphin response (as measured by pain threshold), and transportation related to these variables as well (although more weakly). Study 2 found that individual differences in celebrity worship predicted transportation, as well as tendency to identify with the characters and approve of their behavior. Study 3 demonstrated that individual differences in trait measures of sensation seeking and empathy independently predicted viewers’ transportation in 2 very different film genres. Transportation measures for both films were highly correlated, suggesting that tendency to be transported may be less genre-specific than other dependent measures. Altogether, these results illustrate the usefulness of individual differences approaches in the psychological study of fiction.
Classical Philology, 2017
The aim of is this paper is to demonstrate the utility of Conversation Analysis (CA), a strand of... more The aim of is this paper is to demonstrate the utility of Conversation Analysis (CA), a strand of sociolinguistics, for the appreciation of ancient Greek dialogue texts, with a particular view to the use of Greek particles. Since CA appears to be largely unknown within classics,1 I will begin by providing a basic outline of its principles and methods. The heart of my discussion, however, is formed by a contrastive analysis of two dialogue scenes from Greek tragedy—Aeschylus Agamemnon 931–44 and Sophocles Ajax 1346–73—both featuring a recalcitrant Agamemnon as the object of a delicate piece of persuasion. I hope to show that an analysis along the lines proposed below may shed new light not only on the workings of several Greek particles whose functions are sometimes still poorly understood (notably καὶ μήν, μέντοι, ἀλλά, and γάρ), but also on the dynamics of Greek tragic dialogue more generally.
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Articles and Book Chapters by Evert van Emde Boas
greche: in essi il parlante B pone una domanda che incoraggia il completamento di un turno conversazionale
in corso da parte del parlante A. Facendo uso di alcune nozioni proprie dell’“analisi conversazionale”
(Conversation Analysis), il contributo reinterpreta questi casi come una forma stilizzata di un particolare
comportamento dell’ascolto, ovvero come “backchanneling”: anziché essere inutili e artificiosi, questi versi
imitano, in una forma particolare, il discorso naturale e inoltre ricoprono un ampio spettro di importanti
funzioni pragmatiche.
methodological principles, and offer some thoughts on how the book may be useful as a teaching resource.