What do we learn from dialogues in fiction?

FictDial investigates the function and processing of dialogue in literary fiction in exchange with what we know about real-world conversational dialogue and, thereby, aims to bridge a gap between the current psycholinguistic and neuroscientific knowledge of verbal interactions (conversations) and literary research. Its starting point is the suggestion that reading literary fiction can augment our capacity for social inference and empathy. The project aims to understand 1) what could be learned from fictional (literary) dialogues about every day social interactions (objective 1), 2) how fictional dialogues are processed (objective 2) and 3) how these dialogues affect the knowledge of adults and adolescents about real-life social interactions (objective 3). It applies methods from different disciplines from qualitative, literary analysis to behavioral experiments and measurements of eye-movements. Fictional dialogues are studied with special attention to gender-specific ways of verbal interactions, and mechanisms of social learning are examined in relation to embodied experiences and immersion during reading. The project is hosted by the Norwegian Reading Centre, with a secondment at the University of Oslo, involving experts from education, empirical reading research, narratology and cognitive science. The proposed project includes activities of dissemination and communication to the academic sector but also to teachers, pupils, and policy makers. The research, training and publication activities of the project will enable me to enhance my profile as an independent researcher.