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Suspense is a state of mental
uncertainty
Uncertainty refers to epistemic situations involving imperfect or unknown information. It applies to predictions of future events, to physical measurements that are already made, or to the unknown. Uncertainty arises in partially observable or ...
,
anxiety
Anxiety is an emotion which is characterized by an unpleasant state of inner turmoil and includes feelings of dread over anticipated events. Anxiety is different than fear in that the former is defined as the anticipation of a future threat wh ...
, being
undecided
"Undecided" is a popular song written by Sid Robin and Charlie Shavers and published in 1938.
Recordings
*The first recording was made by John Kirby and The Onyx Club Boys on October 28, 1938, and released by Decca Records as catalog number 22 ...
, or being
doubtful
Doubt is a mental state in which the mind remains suspended between two or more contradictory propositions, unable to be certain of any of them.
Doubt on an emotional level is indecision between belief and disbelief. It may involve uncertainty ...
. In a
dramatic work
Drama is the specific Mode (literature), mode of fiction Mimesis, represented in performance: a Play (theatre), play, opera, mime, ballet, etc., performed in a theatre, or on Radio drama, radio or television.Elam (1980, 98). Considered as a g ...
, suspense is the
anticipation
Anticipation is an emotion involving pleasure or anxiety in considering or awaiting an expected event. Anticipatory emotions include fear, anxiety, hope and trust. When the anticipated event fails to occur, it results in disappointment (if posi ...
of the
outcome of a
plot
Plot or Plotting may refer to:
Art, media and entertainment
* Plot (narrative), the story of a piece of fiction
Music
* ''The Plot'' (album), a 1976 album by jazz trumpeter Enrico Rava
* The Plot (band), a band formed in 2003
Other
* ''Plot' ...
or of the solution to an uncertainty,
puzzle
A puzzle is a game, Problem solving, problem, or toy that tests a person's ingenuity or knowledge. In a puzzle, the solver is expected to put pieces together (Disentanglement puzzle, or take them apart) in a logical way, in order to arrive at th ...
, or
mystery
Mystery, The Mystery, Mysteries or The Mysteries may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Fictional characters
*Mystery, a cat character in ''Emily the Strange''
Films
* ''Mystery'' (2012 film), a 2012 Chinese drama film
* ''Mystery'' ( ...
, particularly as it affects a character for whom one has
sympathy
Sympathy is the perception of, understanding of, and reaction to the distress or need of another life form. According to David Hume, this sympathetic concern is driven by a switch in viewpoint from a personal perspective to the perspective of ano ...
. However, suspense is not exclusive to fiction.
In drama
In literature, films, television, and plays, suspense is a major device for securing and maintaining interest. It may be of several major types: in one, the outcome is uncertain and the suspense resides in the question of ''who, what, or how''; in another, the outcome is inevitable from foregoing events, and the suspense resides in the audience's anxious or frightened anticipation in the question of ''when''. Readers feel suspense when they are deeply curious about ''what'' will happen next, or when they know what is likely to happen but don’t know ''how'' it will happen. Even in
historical fiction
Historical fiction is a literary genre in which the plot takes place in a setting related to the past events, but is fictional. Although the term is commonly used as a synonym for historical fiction literature, it can also be applied to other ty ...
, with characters whose life stories are well known, the ''why'' usually brings suspense to the novel.
An adjunct to suspense is
foreshadowing
Foreshadowing is a narrative device in which a storyteller gives an advance hint of what is to come later in the story. Foreshadowing often appears at the beginning of a story, and it helps develop or subvert the audience's expectations about upco ...
, as found in hints of national crisis or revolution in
Isabel Allende
Isabel Angélica Allende Llona (; born in Lima, 2 August 1942) is a Chilean writer. Allende, whose works sometimes contain aspects of the genre magical realism, is known for novels such as ''The House of the Spirits'' (''La casa de los espír ...
’s ''
House of the Spirits'' (1991).
Examples
* In
Sophocles
Sophocles (; grc, Σοφοκλῆς, , Sophoklễs; 497/6 – winter 406/5 BC)Sommerstein (2002), p. 41. is one of three ancient Greek tragedians, at least one of whose plays has survived in full. His first plays were written later than, or co ...
' ''
Oedipus Rex
''Oedipus Rex'', also known by its Greek title, ''Oedipus Tyrannus'' ( grc, Οἰδίπους Τύραννος, ), or ''Oedipus the King'', is an Athenian tragedy by Sophocles that was first performed around 429 BC. Originally, to the ancient Gr ...
'' (429 B.C.), suspense is achieved through a withholding of the knowledge that Oedipus himself has killed Laius, his father. During the play, the spectators, aware that Oedipus will eventually make the discovery, share the hero's uncertainties and fears as he pursues the truth of his own past.
* In
George Washington Cable
George Washington Cable (October 12, 1844 – January 31, 1925) was an American novelist notable for the realism of his portrayals of Creole life in his native New Orleans, Louisiana. He has been called "the most important southern artist wor ...
's story "Jean-ah Poquelin" (1875), the reader wants to know the cause of the strange smell and the unexplained disappearance of a brother.
* In
Mark Twain
Samuel Langhorne Clemens (November 30, 1835 – April 21, 1910), known by his pen name Mark Twain, was an American writer, humorist, entrepreneur, publisher, and lecturer. He was praised as the "greatest humorist the United States has p ...
's ''
Pudd'nhead Wilson
''Pudd'nhead Wilson'' (1894) is a novel by American writer Mark Twain. Its central intrigue revolves around two boys—one, born into slavery, with 1/32 Black American, black ancestry; the other, White American, white, born to be the master of the ...
'' (1895), the reader anticipates the outcome of the switching of a black infant with a white infant.
* In
Ernest J. Gaines
Ernest James Gaines (January 15, 1933 – November 5, 2019) was an American author whose works have been taught in college classrooms and translated into many languages, including French, Spanish, German, Russian and Chinese. Four of his works we ...
's ''
A Gathering of Old Men
''A Gathering of Old Men'' is a novel by Ernest J. Gaines published in 1983.
Set on a 1970s Louisiana cane farm, the novel addresses racial discrimination and a bond that cannot be usurped.
Plot summary
One afternoon, Candy Marshall, a white ...
'' (1983), the reader waits for the court's decision at a murder trial.
Paradox of suspense
Some authors have tried to explain the "paradox of suspense", namely: a narrative tension that remains effective even when uncertainty is neutralized, because repeat audiences know exactly how the story resolves. Some theories assume that true repeat audiences are extremely rare because, in reiteration, we usually forget many details of the story and the interest arises due to these holes of memory; others claim that uncertainty remains even for often told stories because, during the immersion in the fictional world, we forget fictionally what we know factually or because we expect fictional worlds to look like the real world, where exact repetition of an event is impossible.
The position of Yanal is more radical and postulates that narrative tension that remains effective in true repetition should be clearly distinguished from genuine suspense, because uncertainty is part of the definition of suspense. Baroni proposes to name ''rappel'' this kind of suspense whose excitement relies on the ability of the audience to anticipate perfectly what is to come, a precognition that is particularly enjoyable for children dealing with well-known fairy tales. Baroni adds that another kind of suspense without uncertainty can emerge with the occasional contradiction between what the reader knows about the future (cognition) and what he desires (volition), especially in tragedy, when the protagonist eventually dies or fails (''suspense par contradiction'').
See also
*
Adrenaline
Adrenaline, also known as epinephrine, is a hormone and medication which is involved in regulating visceral functions (e.g., respiration). It appears as a white microcrystalline granule. Adrenaline is normally produced by the adrenal glands and ...
*
Cliffhanger
A cliffhanger or cliffhanger ending is a plot device in fiction which features a main character in a precarious or difficult dilemma or confronted with a shocking revelation at the end of an episode or a film of serialized fiction. A cliffhang ...
*
Conflict (narrative)
Traditionally, conflict is a major literary element of narrative or dramatic structure that creates challenges in a story by adding uncertainty as to whether the goal will be achieved. In works of narrative, conflict is the challenge main charact ...
*
Fear
Fear is an intensely unpleasant emotion in response to perceiving or recognizing a danger or threat. Fear causes physiological changes that may produce behavioral reactions such as mounting an aggressive response or fleeing the threat. Fear ...
*
Mystery fiction
Mystery is a genre fiction, fiction genre where the nature of an event, usually a murder or other crime, remains wiktionary:mysterious, mysterious until the end of the story. Often within a closed circle of suspects, each suspect is usually prov ...
*
Mystery film
A mystery film is a genre of film that revolves around the solution of a problem or a crime. It focuses on the efforts of the detective, private investigator or amateur Detective, sleuth to solve the mysterious circumstances of an issue by means ...
*
Pace (narrative)
In literature, pace, or pacing is the speed at which a story is told—not necessarily the speed at which the story takes place. The number of words needed to write about a certain event does not depend upon how much time the event takes to happe ...
*
Plot twist
A plot twist is a literary technique that introduces a radical change in the direction or expected outcome of the plot in a work of fiction. When it happens near the end of a story, it is known as a twist or surprise ending. It may change the aud ...
*
Red herring
A red herring is a figurative expression referring to a logical fallacy in which a clue or piece of information is or is intended to be misleading, or distracting from the actual question.
Red herring may also refer to: Animals
* Red herring (fis ...
*
Thriller (genre)
Thriller is a genre of fiction, having numerous, often overlapping subgenres. Thrillers are characterized and defined by the mood (psychology), moods they elicit, giving viewers heightened feelings of suspense, Psychomotor agitation, excitement, ...
Notes
References
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Further reading
* Baroni, R. (2009). ''L'oeuvre du temps. Poétique de la discordance narrative'', Paris: Seuil.
* Brooks, P. (1984). ''Reading for the Plot: Design and Intention in Narrative'', Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
* Grivel, C. (1973). ''Production de l'intérêt romanesque'', Paris & The Hague: Mouton.
* Kiebel, E.M. (2009). ''The Effect of Directed Forgetting on Completed and Interrupted Tasks''. Presented at the 2nd Annual Student-Faculty Research Celebration at Winona State University, Winona MN. See onlin
* McKinney, F. (1935). "Studies in the retention of interrupted learning activities", ''Journal of Comparative Psychology'', vol n° 19(2), p. 265–296.
* Phelan, J. (1989). ''Reading People, Reading Plots: Character, Progression, and the Interpretation of Narrative'', Chicago, University of Chicago Press.
* Prieto-Pablos, J. (1998). "The Paradox of Suspense", ''Poetics'', n° 26, p. 99–113.
* Ryan, M.-L. (1991), ''Possible Worlds, Artificial Intelligence, and Narrative Theory'', Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
* Schaper, E. (1968), "Aristotle's Catharsis and Aesthetic Pleasure", ''The Philosophical Quarterly'', vol. 18, n° 71, p. 131–143.
* Sternberg, M. (1978), ''Expositional Modes and Temporal Ordering in Fiction'', Baltimore and London: Johns Hopkins University Press.
* Sternberg, M. (1992), "Telling in Time (II): Chronology, Teleology, Narrativity", ''Poetics Today'', n° 11, p. 901–948.
* Sternberg, M. (2001), "How Narrativity Makes a Difference", ''Narrative'', n° 9, (2), p. 115–122.
* Van Bergen, A. (1968) ''Task interruption''. Amsterdam: North-Holland Publishing Company.
* Vorderer, P., H. Wulff & M. Friedrichsen (eds) (1996). ''Suspense. Conceptualizations, Theoretical Analyses, and Empirical Explorations'', Mahwah: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
* Zeigarnik, B. (1927). Das Behalten erledigter und unerledigter Handlungen. Psychologische Forschung, 9, 1–85.
* Zeigarnik, B. (1967). On finished and unfinished tasks. In W. D. Ellis (Ed.), A sourcebook of Gestalt psychology, New York: Humanities press.
External links
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{{narrative, state=collapsed
Narrative techniques
Concepts in film theory
Memory
Emotions
kk:Зейгарник әсері