Spatial and Spatio-Temporal Immersion

Abstract

Abstract Spatially immersed recipients feel themselves in the storyworld; spatio-temporally immersed recipients feel themselves in the storyworld alongside the characters as the narrated events unfold. The Iliad encourages its audiences to experience spatial immersion in its presentation of its settings and its objects and people, in its handling of scene changes, and in its use of place names, this last item also making an essential contribution to the creation of a storyworld. The poem encourages spatio-temporal immersion by generating motor resonance and by its use of internal focalization, inclusive forms of address, similes, and various methods for presenting the speech of characters.