Experience: Stress

bodily or mental tension resulting from factors that disrupt equilibrium

Related terms: Distress, Eustress

View Version History for This Term

The Silent Patient
Experience: Distress
Narrative Technology: Untrustworthy Narrator
Theo is an untrustworthy narrator. Because the book was written, not only from his point of view, but also from someone who is initially seemingly innocent, we are supposed to feel that we can trust him. But as the book continued on, we see how that was never the case.
Contributed by: Julissa T
June 4, 2025
Frankenstein
Experience: Eustress
Narrative Technology: Meta-Horror
"My rage returned: I remembered that I was for ever deprived of the delights that such beautiful creatures could bestow...I only wonder that at that moment, instead of venting my sensations in exclamations and agony, I did not rush among mankind, and perish in the attempt to destroy them."
Contributed by: angusif
January 9, 2025
The Castle of Otranto
Experience: Distress
Narrative Technology: Story within a Story
The novel begins with a preface written by the translator describing how he discovered the tale, didn't really believe it, but then came to see that it must be true. We are encouraged to "suspend our doubts and peer deeper into the story, seeking authentic truths hidden beneath the surface preposterous" (Fletcher 189).
Contributed by: angusif
January 9, 2025