虚拟现实影像作为一种数字新媒体艺术，在叙事表达方面，以其交互叙事的特点，而表现出与口头文学、书面文学、图像、戏剧、影视等传统叙事手法不同的艺术特色。而就虚拟现实艺术本体而言，在交互叙事的发展方面，又存在着视觉性交互叙事、具身性交互叙事、智能性交互叙事等不同的侧重维度，比如360度全景式VR更注重发掘视觉性交互叙事的可能，交互式VR更倾向具身性交互叙事与结合人工智能技术的智能性交互叙事。本研究主要将虚拟现实影像置于虚拟现实艺术与后电影的双重视野下，主要关注交互式虚拟现实影像的具身性交互叙事，讨论虚拟现实影像具身性交互叙事的理论基础及建构、交互构成要素及机制、用户参与和生成、实现路径及方法，以及对智能媒体时代的虚拟现实影像价值进行重新审视与拓展，进而思考数字媒介时代观者与虚拟现实影像的具身关系，思考人在智能媒介时代的存在方式。本研究主要分为五章：

第一章“虚拟现实影像具身交互叙事的理论基础及建构”，探讨观者如何以身体主体进入并建构虚拟现实影像的叙事。突破经典结构主义叙事学理论，从观者与语境之间的关系角度理解虚拟现实影像的叙事，将身体哲学、身体现象学、技术现象学等作为基底，以具身性和具身认知作为理论根基，以认知叙事学作为理论方法，从技术具身性、叙事具身性、情动具身性三个层面，建构虚拟现实影像具身性交互叙事的理论脉络与理论内涵。

第二章“虚拟现实影像具身交互叙事的交互构成及机制”，讨论虚拟现实影像中观者与谁交互、如何交互的问题。一方面，分析虚拟现实影像交互叙事的媒介基础，进而从“硬件”与“软件”两个方面，讨论观者具身交互的对象；另一方面，从“具身感觉”层的多感官通道信息及情绪唤起、“具身认知”层的观者行动参与戏剧性叙事、“具身存在”层的空间化生存与跨媒介叙事三个方面，建构虚拟现实影像具身交互叙事的机制。

第三章“虚拟现实影像具身交互叙事的观者参与和生成”，鉴于虚拟现实影像交互叙事的双向互动性，本章从观者经验的角度出发进行论述，探讨具身性交互叙事的观者经验及其对叙事的作用。通过对体验《家中的刽子手》《巴巴·亚加》的20个实验对象进行半结构化焦点小组访谈与深度访谈，整理话语材料并进行分析，描述观者的具身交互经验，概括具身交互经验的影响因素，提炼具身交互对叙事及故事生成的意义作用，并结合用户经验，从技术具身性、叙事具身性、情动具身性的角度，进一步阐释与丰富具身性交互叙事的理论内涵。

第四章“虚拟现实影像具身交互叙事的实现路径及方法”，探讨虚拟现实影像具身性交互叙事的可行性路径与具体的叙事策略方法。通过结合具体文本案例，虚拟现实影像的具身性交互叙事主要体现为三方面可行性路径：第一，虚拟现实影像的非人格化叙述框架，通过观者具身交互的方式，使观者能够自由地在不同框架身份间相互转换，实现虚拟现实影像信息交流与叙事交流的复杂双向互动过程；第二，具身交互通过构成叙事宏观设计与叙事微观设计的具体策略，实现观者的故事世界建构，从而把故事实现为一种应对日常需求的叙事情境；第三，具身交互通过激发观者的情动变化，引发观者行动，促成观者与影像的主体间交流，进一步具备影响与改变现实的潜能。

第五章“虚拟现实影像具身交互叙事的价值拓延”，讨论虚拟现实影像具身性交互叙事对于观者经验自我与经验他者的意义和价值，并讨论未来智能媒体时代虚拟现实结合人工智能技术的发展背景下，观者以身体主体参与的具身性交互叙事对于人类审美、文化记忆、精神体系重塑与建构的重要意义。

虚拟现实内容创新与行业发展的关键，在于创作者与观者如何理解虚拟现实媒介本体与艺术内容。本研究以具身性交互叙事作为切入口，一方面从理论层面转向认知叙事学等后经典叙事学理论，另一方面从具身性和身体维度，从媒介物质性与身体现象学的双重视角，讨论具身性交互如何构成叙事的现实问题，试图从技术具身性、叙事具身性、情动具身性三个角度建构虚拟现实影像具身性交互叙事的理论内涵，并通过具身性交互，把虚拟现实影像的“故事讲述”延伸至“故事生成”乃至生存论意义上的“故事生存”。虚拟现实影像的具身性交互，不仅是一种讲故事与体验故事的方法，而且是观者经验自我与经验他者的途径，也是未来智能媒体时代建构艺术美学与文化记忆的重要方式，从而以具身存在释放可能世界的潜能，开启人-技术-世界的具身关系变革。

Virtual reality art is a new media art, which is composed by many art forms. Cinematic virtual reality is one of it. As for the cinematic virtual reality narrative, it is not only deeply influenced by traditional narrative techniques from such as oral literature, written literature, fine arts, drama, film and television, etc., but also characterized by participatory narrative with embodied interaction, innovating the content and form of narrative. This dissertation examines cinematic virtual reality from the perspective of virtual reality art and post-film. Taking the embodied interactive narrative as the research core, this dissertation mainly discusses the theoretical basis, constituent elements, tactics, user experience and the significance of the embodied interactive narrative of cinematic virtual reality. It examines the development status quo and future trends of cinematic virtual reality, considering the embodied relationship between viewer and cinematic virtual reality, and human existence in the digital media era, and then the intelligent media era. This research is constituted by five parts:

The first chapter, “The theoretical basis of embodied interactive narrative of cinematic virtual reality”, considers how the viewer's participation and performance constitutes the narrative of cinematic virtual reality. It takes phenomenology of body, the philosophy of technology, media materiality and cognitive narratology as the theoretical basis to explore the embodied interactive narrative of cinematic virtual reality. It discusses how the phenomenological body is embedded in cinematic virtual reality, and explores the connotation of affective narrative and generative narrative of cinematic virtual reality.

The second chapter, “Elements of embodied interactive narrative of cinematic virtual reality”, discusses to whom and how the viewers interact in the cinematic virtual reality. From the perspective of “hardware” and “software”, it discusses the interactive object of viewers.  It also discusses three aspects of cinematic virtual reality design, that is the embodied sensory aspect, the embodied action aspect and the embodied existence aspect.

The third chapter, “The user experience of embodied interactive narrative of cinematic virtual reality”, carries out empirical research to discuss the practical experience of embodied interaction in cinematic virtual reality and its function to narrative. The analyzation is based on the semi-structured focus group interviews and the in-depth interviews of 20 subjects who experienced the The Hangman at Home and Baba Yaga. The research focuses on questions such as the general experience of viewers’ embodied interaction, the influencing factors of embodied interaction, the influence of embodied interaction to narrative, and the influence of embodied interaction to understand the work.

The fourth chapter, “Strategies of embodied interactive narrative of cinematic virtual reality”, discusses how embodied interaction constitutes the narrative mechanism and method of cinematic virtual reality. First, it analyzes how embodied interaction constructs narrative framework of cinematic virtual reality, and forms the typical narrative mode, the metalepsis narrative. Second, it analyzes how embodied interaction constructs the story world by embedding narrative macro-design and narrative micro-design. Third, it analyzes how embodied interaction facilitates the subjective communication between the viewer and the work through the affective loop.

The fifth chapter, “The significance of embodied interactive narrative of cinematic virtual reality”, considers the significance and the value of embodied interactive cinematic virtual reality, especially from the perspectives of experiencing self and experiencing the other. It also explores the significance and the value of the embodied interaction of cinematic virtual reality for the existence of human subjectivity under the background of the combination of virtual reality technologies and artificial intelligence in the age of intelligent media.

The discussion of this dissertation has two main points. On the one hand, it turns to post-classical narratology theories, such as cognitive narratology to discuss cinematic virtual reality narrative. On the other hand, from the perspective of media materiality and body phenomenology, it explores how embodied interaction construct cinematic virtual reality narrative, and extends the focus from “story-telling” to “story-generating”, and to “story-living”.

The embodied interaction of cinematic virtual reality is not only a method to just tell stories or experience stories, but also a way for viewers to experience themselves and others. It is also significant for constructing human cultural memory and aesthetics in the future intelligent media era. The embodied interaction between the viewer and the work reflects the transformation of the embodied relationship between human being, technology and the world, and also enlightens our cognition and understanding to human existence.