Search Wikipedia Search Create account Log in

Suspense 31 languages

Contents hide Article Talk Read Edit View history Tools

(Top) From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

In narratives
For other uses, see Suspense (disambiguation).
Examples
Suspense is a state of anxiety or excitement caused by mysteriousness, uncertainty, doubt, or
Paradox of suspense undecidedness.[1] In a narrative work, suspense is the audience's excited anticipation about the plot or conflict
See also (which may be heightened by a violent moment, stressful scene, puzzle, mystery, etc.),[2][3][4][5] particularly as it
affects a character for whom the audience feels sympathy.[6] However, suspense is not exclusive to narratives.
Notes

References
In narratives [ edit ]
Further reading
In literature, films, television, and plays, suspense is a major device for securing and maintaining interest. It may
External links
be of several major types: in one, the outcome is uncertain and the suspense resides in the question of who,
what, or how; in another, the outcome is inevitable from foregoing events, and the suspense resides in the
audience's anxious or frightened anticipation in the question of when.[7] Readers feel suspense when they are
deeply curious about what will happen next, or when they know what is likely to happen but do not know how it
will happen. Even in historical fiction, with characters whose life stories are well known, the why usually brings
suspense to the novel.[8] A frame from the 1919 film
Suspense.
An adjunct to suspense is foreshadowing, as found in hints of national crisis or revolution in Isabel Allende's
House of the Spirits (1991).[9]

Examples [ edit ]

In Sophocles' Oedipus Rex (429 B.C.), suspense is achieved through a withholding of the knowledge that Oedipus himself has killed Laius, his father.
During the play, the spectators, aware that Oedipus will eventually make the discovery, share the hero's uncertainties and fears as he pursues the
truth of his own past.[10]
In George Washington Cable's story "Jean-ah Poquelin" (1875), the reader wants to know the cause of the strange smell and the unexplained
disappearance of a brother.[11]
In Mark Twain's Pudd'nhead Wilson (1895), the reader anticipates the outcome of the switching of a black infant with a white infant.[12]
In Ernest J. Gaines's A Gathering of Old Men (1983), the reader waits for the court's decision at a murder trial.[13]

Paradox of suspense [ edit ]

Some authors have tried to explain the "paradox of suspense", namely: a narrative tension that remains effective even when uncertainty is neutralized,
because repeat audiences know exactly how the story resolves.[14][15][16][17][18] Some theories assume that true repeat audiences are extremely rare
because, in reiteration, we usually forget many details of the story and the interest arises due to these holes of memory;[19] others claim that uncertainty
remains even for often told stories because, during the immersion in the fictional world, we forget fictionally what we know factually[20] or because we
expect fictional worlds to look like the real world, where exact repetition of an event is impossible.[21]

The position of Yanal is more radical and postulates that narrative tension that remains effective in true repetition should be clearly distinguished from
genuine suspense, because uncertainty is part of the definition of suspense. Baroni proposes to name rappel this kind of suspense whose excitement
relies on the ability of the audience to anticipate perfectly what is to come, a precognition that is particularly enjoyable for children dealing with well-
known fairy tales. Baroni adds that another kind of suspense without uncertainty can emerge with the occasional contradiction between what the reader
knows about the future (cognition) and what he desires (volition), especially in tragedy, when the protagonist eventually dies or fails (suspense par
contradiction).[22]

See also [ edit ]

Adrenaline
Cliffhanger
Conflict (narrative)
Fear
Mystery fiction
Mystery film
Pace (narrative)
Plot twist
Red herring
Thriller (genre)

Notes [ edit ]

1. ^ Webster (1969) 9. ^ Carey & Snodgrass (1999) 17. ^ Walton (1990)

2. ^ Beckson & Ganz (1989) 10. ^ Beckson & Ganz (1989) 18. ^ Yanal (1996)
3. ^ Carey & Snodgrass (1999) 11. ^ Carey & Snodgrass (1999) 19. ^ Brewer (1996)
4. ^ Harmon (2012) 12. ^ Carey & Snodgrass (1999) 20. ^ Walton (1990)
5. ^ Henry (1995) 13. ^ Carey & Snodgrass (1999) 21. ^ Gerrig (1989)
6. ^ Harmon (2012) 14. ^ Baroni (2007) 22. ^ Baroni (2007, pp. 279–295)
7. ^ Harmon (2012) 15. ^ Brewer (1996)
8. ^ Henry (1995) 16. ^ Gerrig (1989)

References [ edit ]

Baroni, R. (2007), La tension narrative. Suspense, curiosité, surprise, Paris: Éditions du Seuil
Beckson, Karl; Ganz, Arthur (1989), Literary Terms: A Dictionary (3rd ed.), New York: Noonday Press, LCCN 88-34368
Brewer, W. (1996). "The Nature of Narrative Suspense and the Problem of Rereading". In Vorderer, P.; H. J. Wulff; M. Friedrichsen (eds.). Suspense:
Conceptualizations, theoretical analyses, and empirical explorations. Mahwah: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Carey, Gary; Snodgrass, Mary Ellen (1999), A Multicultural Dictionary of Literary Terms , Jefferson: McFarland & Company, ISBN 0-7864-0552-X
Gerrig, R. (1989). "Suspense in the Absence of Uncertainty" . Journal of Memory and Language. 28 (6): 633–648. doi:10.1016/0749-
596X(89)90001-6 .
Harmon, William (2012), A Handbook to Literature (12th ed.), Boston: Longman, ISBN 978-0-205-02401-8
Henry, Laurie (1995), The Fiction Dictionary , Cincinnati: Story Press, ISBN 1-884910-05-X
Walton, K. (1990), Mimesis as Make-Believe, Cambridge: Harvard University Press
Webster's Seventh New Collegiate Dictionary, Springfield: G. & C. Merriam Company, 1969
Yanal, R. (1996). "The Paradox of Suspense". British Journal of Aesthetics. 36 (2): 146–158. doi:10.1093/bjaesthetics/36.2.146 .

Further reading [ edit ]

Baroni, R. (2009). L'oeuvre du temps. Poétique de la discordance narrative, Paris: Seuil.

Brooks, P. (1984). Reading for the Plot: Design and Intention in Narrative, Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Grivel, C. (1973). Production de l'intérêt romanesque, Paris & The Hague: Mouton.
Kiebel, E.M. (2009). The Effect of Directed Forgetting on Completed and Interrupted Tasks. Presented at the 2nd Annual Student-Faculty Research
Celebration at Winona State University, Winona MN. See online [1] .
McKinney, F. (1935). "Studies in the retention of interrupted learning activities", Journal of Comparative Psychology, vol n° 19(2), p. 265–296.
Phelan, J. (1989). Reading People, Reading Plots: Character, Progression, and the Interpretation of Narrative, Chicago, University of Chicago Press.
Prieto-Pablos, J. (1998). "The Paradox of Suspense", Poetics, n° 26, p. 99–113.
Ryan, M.-L. (1991), Possible Worlds, Artificial Intelligence, and Narrative Theory, Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
Schaper, E. (1968), "Aristotle's Catharsis and Aesthetic Pleasure", The Philosophical Quarterly, vol. 18, n° 71, p. 131–143.
Sternberg, M. (1978), Expositional Modes and Temporal Ordering in Fiction, Baltimore and London: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Sternberg, M. (1992), "Telling in Time (II): Chronology, Teleology, Narrativity", Poetics Today, n° 11, p. 901–948.
Sternberg, M. (2001), "How Narrativity Makes a Difference", Narrative, n° 9, (2), p. 115–122.
Van Bergen, A. (1968) Task interruption. Amsterdam: North-Holland Publishing Company.
Vorderer, P., H. Wulff & M. Friedrichsen (eds) (1996). Suspense. Conceptualizations, Theoretical Analyses, and Empirical Explorations, Mahwah:
Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Zeigarnik, B. (1927). Das Behalten erledigter und unerledigter Handlungen. Psychologische Forschung, 9, 1–85.
Zeigarnik, B. (1967). On finished and unfinished tasks. In W. D. Ellis (Ed.), A sourcebook of Gestalt psychology, New York: Humanities press.

External links [ edit ]

"The Paradox of Suspense" entry in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy

· · Narrative [show]

Categories: Narrative techniques Concepts in film theory Memory Emotions

This page was last edited on 9 February 2024, at 00:00 (UTC).

Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 4.0; additional terms may apply. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit
organization.

Privacy policy About Wikipedia Disclaimers Contact Wikipedia Code of Conduct Developers Statistics Cookie statement Mobile view