The Poet is Speaking: A Case for Studying the Role of Auditory Imagery in Poetry-Elicited Emotions

Abstract

Examining what people ‘hear’ in silent reading may advance our understanding of how poetry evokes emotions. Integrating different perspectives on affective language processing, both in social interactions and in fiction, the present paper introduces a new model of poetry-elicited emotions. In particular, we argue for separating the auditory simulation of the written text from other multisensory simulations that may arise during reading. Finally, we review emerging empirical findings in support of our model and outline several directions for future research.