ABSTRACT
The chapter explores prominent work on reader emotions as relevant to prose fiction, paying particular attention to the role of simulation with regard to three key components of fiction: social worlds, narrators and characters, and the projection of story outcomes. Simulation is understood as modeling and predicting otherwise inaccessible data and in the case of fiction this mostly means human interaction and other minds. The first section is devoted to the distinction into fiction and artifact emotions as narratives simulate and imitate real-life human actions (fiction) and at the same time are carefully designed to produce given effects (artifact). The other two sections cover the affective dimension of discourse, the way of presenting a story. The first one discusses prose fiction as a complex act of communication where readers simulate and respond to various entities involved (implied authors, non-personified narrators), along with corresponding emotional attitudes associated with their narrative functions. The last section covers plotting, the organization and unfolding of story events in the process of reading, in conjunction with the three basic plot emotions: suspense, curiosity, and surprise. Simulation is crucial here, too, as readers constantly project and respond to possible story outcomes or causes.
