“You are probably alone”: analysing the intimacy of second-person elements in horror fiction podcasts on the example of Within the Wires

Abstract

Fiction podcasting is a form of narrative storytelling that has been rapidly growing over the course of the 21st century. It has spread over many genres, with horror fiction podcasting in particular being one of the fastest-growing subgenres of horror. Despite that, the medium is under-researched. The following thesis deals with second-person narration in a psychological horror podcast, Within the Wires. In the introduction, a brief overview of second-person narration and the research surrounding it is given. The literature review provides an overview of how podcasting as a medium emerged and the way it approaches storytelling. The empirical analysis is conducted with the help of the embodied narratology framework, which takes into account people’s embodied responses. In the conclusion, the findings of the thesis are summarised and the aims reiterated. Keywords: second-person narration, embodied narratology, fiction podcasts, horror