Elements of surprise : our mental limits and the satisfactions of plot /

Elements of Surprise opens with a novel but narrow focus: how a particular cognitive bias, the "curse of knowledge," underwrites stories that rely on what it calls "well-made surprise," as seen in (for example) classic detective fiction--that is, surprises in novels, films, telev...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Tobin, Vera, 1975- (Author)
Format: Book
Language:English
Published: Cambridge, Massachusetts : Harvard University Press, 2018.
Subjects:
Table of Contents:
  • Elementary problems
  • The curse of knowledge?
  • The poetics of surprise
  • The naming of things
  • Revelations, recognitions, and the satisfactions of plot
  • When unreliability is a surprise
  • When narration itself is a surprise
  • So many things are obvious (now that we're at the end).