| Abstract: | This article investigates mental representations of literary characters and their relations with other aspects of response to literature and age, gender, and expertise. A Saga chapter and the beginning of a contemporary novel were presented to 16 participants from each of three age groups (13 years, 17 years, adults) equally divided by gender and expertise level. After having evaluated the texts with rating scales, participants were interviewed on the main character of each text. The similarity between participants’ answers was computed and used for a cluster analysis. Four clusters (representation types) were identified for one character and five for the other. Character representation was affected by age but not by expertise and gender, and was unrelated to other aspects of response to literary text. Explicit ratings of the texts, instead, were affected by expertise. Theoretical and educational implications are discussed. |
