A Comparison of Flow in Short Stories (Case Study: Clay & After the Race)

This study was performed to assess the flow experience in reading short stories. Flow Theory suggests that flow experience is characterized by a person’s interest, control, and focused attention during a task and alsoby a balance between challenge and skills. Flow Theory has not yet been studied in literature. The goals ofthis study were to make a comparison regarding the flow experience when reading, between the two short stories Clay and After the Race by James Joyce and to investigate the elements in these short stories that caused a greater influence on the flow experience. Five Iranian students took part in this study. After readingthe stories, they responded to a Flow Perceptions Questionnaire to report their perceptions of flow; then they ranked the elements of short story presented based on the most to the least influential in engaging them in theflow of the story. The results indicated that four participants had flow experience while reading the short story Clay and one when reading After the Race, thus making the short story Clay more flow inducing. The most influential elements on achieving this flow state when reading Clay were character(s), language, author, and title.

A Comparison of Flow in Short Stories (Case Study: Clay & After the Race) Keywords:

Flow Theory , short story , elements in short stories , Clay , After the Race