Powerful Prose : How Textual Features Impact Readers What makes a reading experience »powerful« This volume brings together literary scholars linguists and empirical researchers to elucidate the effects and reader responses to investigate just that. The thirteen contributions theorize this widely used but to date insufficiently studied notion and provide insights into the therefore still mysterious seeming power of literary fiction. The collection investigates a variety of stylistic as well as readerly and psychological features responsible for short and long term effects topics of great interest to those interested or specialized in literary studies and narratology (cognitive) stylistics empirical literary studies and reader response theory.