Taking its point of departure from possible worlds theory, the essay then focuses on speci. In roleplaying games and recent theories of fictional world, this essay argues, emphasis on objects makes possible intertextual comparisons, which in turn help to define and rejuvenate the agency of readers and critics against the backdrop of challenges to that agency by market culture and structuralist literary theory. In the sciences, theories are systems for understanding how an aspect of the world works. Based on the authors work as general editor of the norton anthology of world literature, the essay develops an approach to world literature centered on world creation. Taking its point of departure from possible worlds theory, the essay then focuses on specific genres that foreground the capacity of literature to create whole worlds, including world. The creation of literary worlds can be understood within the framework of possible worlds theory as developed by thomas pavel, lubomir dolezel and others. The impossible object is a house that is larger on the inside than on the outside. In this book ruth ronen develops a comparative reading of the use of possible worlds in philosophy and in literary theory, and offers an analysis of the way.
Possible worlds in literary theory literature, culture. Reality, imagination and possible worlds in american postmodern. Ruth ronen the concept of possible worlds, originally introduced in philosophical logic, has recently gained interdisciplinary influence. Childrens classics through the lenses of literary theory. Reality, imagination and possible worlds in american. Developed by philosophers belonging to the anglosaxon school of analytic philosophy as a means to solve problems in formal semantics, pw theory was adapted.
Beginning with a discussion of the extant semantics and pragmatics of fictionality. The concept of possible worlds, originally introduced in philosophical logic, proves to be a productive tool when borrowed by literary theory to explain the notion of fictional worlds. A very short introduction jonathan culler has always been about the best person around at explaining literary theory without oversimplifying it or treating it with polemical bias. The basis of possible worlds theory is the settheoretical idea that realitythe sum of the imaginableis a universe composed of a plurality of distinct elements. This text develops a comparative reading of the use of possible worlds in philosophy and in literary theory. Cambridge core literary theory possible worlds in literary theory by ruth ronen. Possible worlds theory and contemporary narratology. Possible worlds theory and fictional worlds research papers. The broader question that arises in connection with the view of literary competence that we have been advocating, though, is whether a particular reading that circumscribes this set of possible worlds for example, for the lord of the rings, to a set containing some worlds where aragorn is heroic and others where he is monstrous proceeds in a. This is a survey article on the significance of possible worlds theory for literary studies. This is why impossible space is rather rare in literature, com pared to painting. Possible worlds, artificial intelligence, and narrative theory by marielaure ryan.
Computability theory and literary competence the british. Pdf possible worlds in recent literary theory marielaure ryan. Schema theory and the analysis of text worlds in poetry. Cambridge university press 0521450179 possible worlds in literary theory ruth ronen excerpt more information. The article analyzes the fictional worlds employed by literary historians with a tool grounded in possible worlds theory.
The core of the tools spatiotemporal framework is applied to four literary histories which cover the history of the novel from its beginnings to the twentieth century. Specifically, in possible world semantics, the modal operators are interpreted as quantifiers over possible worlds, as expressed informally in the following two general principles. It is argued that such an approach constitutes a useful alternative to the possibleworld models which have traditionally been applied to the description of fictional worlds. The main profit fictional worlds semantics gains from logical possible worlds is. A readers guide to contemporary literary theory 5th edition. Drawing on recent work in literary theory, linguistics, and symbolic anthropology, as well as cognitive and developmental psychology, professor bruner examines the mental acts that enter into the imaginative creation of possible worlds, and he shows how the activity of imaginary world making undergirds human science, literature, and philosophy. Lewis, 1986 has been used in literary studies and narratology dolezel, 1998. Start your 48hour free trial to unlock this actual minds, possible worlds study guide and get instant access to the following analysis. The concept of possible worlds, originally introduced in philosophical logic, has recently gained interdisciplinary influence. This study substantially enriched literary theory by. Possible worlds theory and contemporary narratology updates the field of possible worlds theory and postclassical narratology by developing this theoretical framework further and applying it to a range of contemporary literary narratives.
An example of a narrative that gives a central role to a spatially impossible object is house of leaves by mark z. Export a ris file for endnote, procite, reference manager, zotero, mendeley export a text file for bibtex note. Pdf the philosophical concept of possible worlds lenzen, 2004. Inspired by its use in literary theory, film criticism and the discourse of game design, salome voegelin adapts and develops possible world theory in relation to sound. Cambridge university press 0521456487 possible worlds in. Its theoretical underpinnings can be traced to a number of diverse academic disciplines, including possible worlds theory, cognitive psychology, cognitive linguistics, and stylistics. At the core of the theory of possible worlds is the idea that reality forms a modal system.
A readers guide to contemporary literary theory raman selden peter widdowson peter brooker fifth edition a readers guide to contemporary literary theoryis a classic introduction to the everevolving field of modern literary theory, now expanded and updated in its fifth edition. The most influential description of this system was developed by saul kripke and is known as an mmodel or model. Cambridge university press 0521450179 possible worlds in. The theory of fictional worlds considers fictional worlds to be specific kinds of possible worlds but, at the same time, fictional worlds are determined by their specific qualities. Found at these bookshops searching please wait retrieved 12 august heterocosmixa careful attention heterocoemica philosophical inquiry into possible worlds, especially saul kripkes and jaakko hintikkas, and through long familiarity with literary theory, dolezel brings us an unprecedented examination. Cambridge university press 0521456487 possible worlds in literary theory. Possible worlds theory and contemporary narratology on jstor.
Alvin plantinga, another prominent logician, straightforwardly asserts that a possible world is a way things could have been plantinga 1974. The expressive power of the possible worlds theory in video games. Possible worlds theory by marielaure ryan entry for the routledge encyclopedia of narrative theory the theory of possible worlds henceforth pw, a modern adaptation of a leibnizian concept, was originally developed by philosophers of the analytic school kripke, lewis, rescher, hintikka as a means to solve problems in formal semantics. This site is like a library, use search box in the widget to get ebook that you want. But many students think of these texts as inaccessible impenetrable.
Possible worlds in the history of the novel poetics today. In heterocosmica, lubomir dolezel offers a complete theory of literary fiction based on the idea of possible worlds. Taxonomies of fictional possibilities have also been proposed where the likelihood of a fictional world is. It is argued that such an approach constitutes a useful alternative to the possible world models which have traditionally been applied to the description of fictional worlds. Possible worlds theory and contemporary narratology by. Pdf the expressive power of the possible worlds theory in video. Possible worlds the living handbook of narratology. Possibleworlds theory by marielaure ryan entry for the routledge encyclopedia of narrative theory the theory of possible worlds henceforth pw, a modern adaptation of a leibnizian concept, was originally developed by philosophers of the analytic school kripke, lewis, rescher, hintikka as a means to solve problems in formal semantics. It is indeed true that since the eighties, when the first attempts were made to draw on the theory of the. View possible worlds theory and fictional worlds research papers on academia. Analyzing the narrative techniques used by donald barthelme in his short story the dragon, i will try to point out the way postmodern fiction and theories of possible worlds.
The notion of possible worlds the concept of possible worlds is originally connected with the name of saul kripke and has become one of the most useful concepts in the field of modern logical semantics. In his 1975 article possible worlds in literary semantics further developed in his 1986 book. For ryan, the theory of possible worlds provides a more nuanced way of discussing the commonplace notion of a fictional world, while artificial intelligence contributes to narratology and the theory of fiction directly via its researches into the congnitive processes of texts and automatic story generation. Because the blackwell guide to literary theory is aimed at readers unacquainted with theory undergraduates especially, but also beginning graduate students, instructors who need a refresher course, and general readers interested in the sometimes forbiddingly arcane world of literary studies my focus is on fundamental concepts and the most. Reading the identity of dramatis personae through the. Click download or read online button to get the last of all possible worlds book now. Although possible world has been part of the philosophical lexicon at least since leibniz, the notion became firmly entrenched in contemporary philosophy with the development of possible world semantics for the languages of propositional and firstorder modal logic. My purpose in this chapter is not to enter into a fullscale technical analysis of possibleworlds semantics, for such analyses have been ably written by others. World literature and the creation of literary worlds. Possible worlds hence provide a general framework and context for describing the most notable influence of philosophical discourse on the literary theory of fictionality and they supply the grounds for reorienting literary theory toward. Pavel was the first literary critic to understand the potential of the concept of pw for narrative theory.
Possible worlds in the history of the novel poetics. Literary theory is largely absent from high school english courses. Cambridge university press 0521450179 possible worlds in literary theory. Some little while after revising the second edition in 1989, raman prematurely. Possible worlds theory and fictional worlds research.
Pavel titled possible worlds in literary semantics appeared in the journal ofaesthetics and art criticism. Possible worlds theory and contemporary narratology by alice. Of course it is possible to use methods of literary criticism to better understand canonical texts. Text world theory is a cognitivelinguistic model of human discourse processing. Possible worlds in recent literary theory 529 philosophical belief that things might be otherwise than they are qtd. In addition to the usual sentence operators of classical logic such as and. Possible worlds in humanities, arts and sciences proceedings of nobel symposium 65. Possible worlds, artificial intelligence, and narrative theory by marielaure ryan english 1992 isbn. Discussion of nils erik enkvists paper connexity, interpretability, universes of discourse, and text worlds the world of words and pictures. Possible worlds stanford encyclopedia of philosophy. This article demonstrates an approach to the study of text worlds in poetry based on the theory of background knowledge and comprehension generally known as schema theory. Starting in the mid70s, pw theory was adapted to the fictional worlds of narrative by the. Actual minds, possible worlds jerome bruner harvard.
Impossible worlds and aesthetic illusion 5 entities. Pdf possible worlds in recent literary theory marie. In his 1975 article possible worlds in literary semantics further developed in his 1986 book fictional worlds, he sees in the concept of pw a way to put an end to. Cambridge university press 0521456487 possible worlds in literary theory ruth ronen frontmatter more information. The author extensively details, analyses and compares key concepts and strategies of fictional worlds theory. Pdf the expressive power of the possible worlds theory. Drawing on recent work in literary theory, linguistics, and symbolic anthropology, as well as cognitive and developmental psychology professor bruner examines the mental acts that enter into the imaginative creation of possible worlds, and he shows how the activity of imaginary world making undergirds human science, literature, and philosophy, as well as everyday thinking, and even our sense. Possible worlds, artificial intelligence, and narrative theory. By careful attention to philosophical inquiry into possible worlds, especially saul kripkes and jaakko hintikkas, and through long familiarity with literary theory, dolezel brings us an unprecedented examination of the notion of fictional worlds. In heterocosmica, lubomir dolezel offers nothing less than a complete theory of literary fiction based on the idea of possible worlds. A very short introduction is an exemplary work in this genre.
The last of all possible worlds download ebook pdf, epub. Literary critics, such as marielaure ryan, lubomir dolezel, and thomas pavel, have used possibleworlds theory to address notions of literary truth, the nature of fictionality, and the relationship between fictional worlds and reality. The concept of possible worlds henceforth pw, loosely inspired by leibniz. In his 1975 article possible worlds in literary semantics further developed in his 1986 book fictional worlds, he sees in the concept of pw a way to put an end to the structuralist moratorium on questions of reference. Ruth ronen develops a comparative reading of the use of possible worlds in philosophy and in literary theory. This universe is hierarchically structured by the opposition of one welldesignated element, to all the other members of the set ryan 2005, 446. The basic premise of text world theory is that human beings process and understand all discourse by constructing mental.
David k lewis possible world is juxtaposed with maurice merleaupontys lifeworld, to produce a meeting of the semantic and the phenomenological at the place of listening. The next two chapters move beyond the constraints of a oneworld semantics, formulating a theory of possible worlds that is justifiable logically and linguistically, and is compatible with the way we read literary texts. The main profit fictional worlds semantics gains from logical possible worlds is the referential frame. Preliminary motivations fictional worlds semantics builds to a considerable extent on the notion of possible worlds used by logical semantics. Pdf possible worlds in recent literary theory marielaure. Possible worlds in literary theory free download as pdf file. This volume systematically outlines the theoretical underpinnings of the possible worlds approach, provides. Taking its point of departure from possible worlds theory, the essay.
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