Conference Agenda

When reading narratives such as novels and manga, readers often place themselves in the position of the protagonist and experience intense emotions, including tension, anticipation, fear, anger, and joy. Moreover, fictional characters—despite their non-existence—may later function in the mind as if they were real others, offering encouragement or guidance that influences readers’ actions and judgments. This paper theoretically re-describes the experience of narrative reading by drawing on the conceptual framework of Dialogical Self Theory.

When a reader begins a narrative, a work-specific “narrative domain” is established within the self, in which character-based I-positions corresponding to the protagonist and other major characters are gradually constructed. As narrative absorption deepens, the protagonist’s I-position is foregrounded and becomes dominant within the self. In some cases, readers may temporarily shift to the I-positions of other characters, organizing emotional responses and meaning-making from those perspectives. In contrast to conventional views that conceptualize narrative engagement as a monolithic self empathizing with characters external to the self, this paper conceptualizes story characters as I-positions that temporarily constitute elements of the self.

Within narratives, characters with differing perspectives and values interact, generating multiple contradictions both within and between positions. Such contradictions are essential to narrative development and function as generative conditions for human action and meaning-making.

After the reader leaves the narrative world, the narrative domain enters a “sleep mode,” defined as a temporary inactive state that withdraws from the experiential foreground while retaining the potential for reactivation. Even in this state, some character-based I-positions remain dialogically available, continuing to engage with everyday I-positions. In this way, memorable fictional characters persist as “internalized others” within the reader’s self. From this perspective, narrative reading opens dialogical possibilities with diverse others and transforms the self into a more polyphonic and enriched configuration.