This thesis examines how Hemingway’s use of language evokes emotions in his stories and how his particular way of evoking emotions affects readers. Hemingway’s style of providing vivid experiences for readers centers on the image as the dimension where emotions are offered, but also the dimension where the writer’s work converges with the reader’s reception of it. The reader reconstructs the text through the act of signifying emotions. This process of signification is made possible only through the use of the reader’s imagination. The study of the relation between emotion and imagination emphasizes that readers decode fiction as they decode reality: in the way it affects them.
In the act of reading narrative fiction--as this thesis demonstrates--human beings enhance their identities in the same way that they construct the stories they read: by attributing meaning to the emotions evoked in them while reading. In essence, human beings feel compelled to immerse themselves in fiction because this diegetic process helps them to construct their identities as humans.
","abstract_html":"<p>This thesis examines how Hemingway’s use of language evokes emotions in his stories and how his particular way of evoking emotions affects readers. Hemingway’s style of providing vivid experiences for readers centers on the image as the dimension where emotions are offered, but also the dimension where the writer’s work converges with the reader’s reception of it. The reader reconstructs the text through the act of signifying emotions. This process of signification is made possible only through the use of the reader’s imagination. The study of the relation between emotion and imagination emphasizes that readers decode fiction as they decode reality: in the way it affects them.</p> <p>In the act of reading narrative fiction--as this thesis demonstrates--human beings enhance their identities in the same way that they construct the stories they read: by attributing meaning to the emotions evoked in them while reading. In essence, human beings feel compelled to immerse themselves in fiction because this diegetic process helps them to construct their identities as humans.</p>","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Diaz, Gorka"],"institution":null,"degree_name":"Master of Arts (MA)","degree_level":"Open Access Thesis","degree_discipline":"English Language and Literature","degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":["Elisabeth Däumer, PhD","Charles Cunningham, PhD"],"advisors":[],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2009,"date_issued":"2009-01-01T08:00:00Z","date_published":"2009-01-01T08:00:00Z","updated_at":"2026-07-24T02:16:36Z","subjects":["Hemingway","Ernest","1899-1961 Criticism and interpretation","Narration (Rhetoric)","Emotions in literature","Structuralism (Literary analysis)","Literature in English, North America"],"languages":[],"rights":[],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[]},"links":{"outbound_url":"https://commons.emich.edu/theses/224","outbound_label":"Repository record","outbound_source":"dc:identifier"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor","label":"Contributor","values":["Elisabeth Däumer, PhD","Charles Cunningham, PhD"]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Diaz, Gorka"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"thesis:degree_discipline","label":"Discipline","values":["English Language and Literature"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_level","label":"Degree Level","values":["Open Access Thesis"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_name","label":"Degree Name","values":["Master of Arts (MA)"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["Hemingway","Ernest","1899-1961 Criticism and interpretation","Narration (Rhetoric)","Emotions in literature","Structuralism (Literary analysis)","Literature in English, North America"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["https://commons.emich.edu/theses/224"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description.abstract","label":"Abstract","values":["This thesis examines how Hemingway’s use of language evokes emotions in his stories and how his particular way of evoking emotions affects readers. Hemingway’s style of providing vivid experiences for readers centers on the image as the dimension where emotions are offered, but also the dimension where the writer’s work converges with the reader’s reception of it. The reader reconstructs the text through the act of signifying emotions. This process of signification is made possible only through the use of the reader’s imagination. The study of the relation between emotion and imagination emphasizes that readers decode fiction as they decode reality: in the way it affects them.
In the act of reading narrative fiction--as this thesis demonstrates--human beings enhance their identities in the same way that they construct the stories they read: by attributing meaning to the emotions evoked in them while reading. In essence, human beings feel compelled to immerse themselves in fiction because this diegetic process helps them to construct their identities as humans.
"]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["Language, emotion, and imagination: Constructing human identity through Hemingway's work"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:contributor":["Elisabeth Däumer, PhD","Charles Cunningham, PhD"],"dc:creator":["Diaz, Gorka"],"dc:description.abstract":["This thesis examines how Hemingway’s use of language evokes emotions in his stories and how his particular way of evoking emotions affects readers. Hemingway’s style of providing vivid experiences for readers centers on the image as the dimension where emotions are offered, but also the dimension where the writer’s work converges with the reader’s reception of it. The reader reconstructs the text through the act of signifying emotions. This process of signification is made possible only through the use of the reader’s imagination. The study of the relation between emotion and imagination emphasizes that readers decode fiction as they decode reality: in the way it affects them.
In the act of reading narrative fiction--as this thesis demonstrates--human beings enhance their identities in the same way that they construct the stories they read: by attributing meaning to the emotions evoked in them while reading. In essence, human beings feel compelled to immerse themselves in fiction because this diegetic process helps them to construct their identities as humans.
"],"dc:identifier":["https://commons.emich.edu/theses/224"],"dc:subject":["Hemingway","Ernest","1899-1961 Criticism and interpretation","Narration (Rhetoric)","Emotions in literature","Structuralism (Literary analysis)","Literature in English, North America"],"dc:title":["Language, emotion, and imagination: Constructing human identity through Hemingway's work"],"thesis:degree_discipline":["English Language and Literature"],"thesis:degree_level":["Open Access Thesis"],"thesis:degree_name":["Master of Arts (MA)"]},"updated_at":"2026-07-24T02:16:36Z"}