Possible Worlds in Literary Theory

Possible Worlds in Literary Theory PDF Author: Ruth Ronen
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521456487
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 260

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Book Description
The concept of possible worlds, originally introduced in philosophical logic, has recently gained interdisciplinary influence; it proves to be a productive tool when borrowed by literary theory to explain the notion of fictional worlds. 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 the concept contributes to our understanding of fictionality and the structure and ontology of fictional worlds. Dr Ronen suggests a new set of criteria for the definition of fictionality, making rigorous distinctions between fictional and possible worlds; and through specific studies of domains within fictional worlds - events, objects, time, and point of view - she proposes a radical rethinking of the problem of fictionality in general and fictional narrativity in particular.

Possible Worlds in Literary Theory

Possible Worlds in Literary Theory PDF Author: Ruth Ronen
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521456487
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 260

Get Book

Book Description
The concept of possible worlds, originally introduced in philosophical logic, has recently gained interdisciplinary influence; it proves to be a productive tool when borrowed by literary theory to explain the notion of fictional worlds. 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 the concept contributes to our understanding of fictionality and the structure and ontology of fictional worlds. Dr Ronen suggests a new set of criteria for the definition of fictionality, making rigorous distinctions between fictional and possible worlds; and through specific studies of domains within fictional worlds - events, objects, time, and point of view - she proposes a radical rethinking of the problem of fictionality in general and fictional narrativity in particular.

Possible Worlds Theory and Contemporary Narratology

Possible Worlds Theory and Contemporary Narratology PDF Author: Alice Bell
Publisher: U of Nebraska Press
ISBN: 149621305X
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 440

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Book Description
The notion of possible worlds has played a decisive role in postclassical narratology by awakening interest in the nature of fictionality and in emphasizing the notion of world as a source of aesthetic experience in narrative texts. As a theory concerned with the opposition between the actual world that we belong to and possible worlds created by the imagination, possible worlds theory has made significant contributions to narratology. 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. This volume systematically outlines the theoretical underpinnings of the possible worlds approach, provides updated methods for analyzing fictional narrative, and profiles those methods via the analysis of a range of different texts, including contemporary fiction, digital fiction, video games, graphic novels, historical narratives, and dramatic texts. Through the variety of its contributions, including those by three originators of the subject area--Lubomír Doležel, Thomas Pavel, and Marie-Laure Ryan--Possible Worlds Theory and Contemporary Narratology demonstrates the vitality and versatility of one of the most vibrant strands of contemporary narrative theory.

Possible Worlds, Artificial Intelligence, and Narrative Theory

Possible Worlds, Artificial Intelligence, and Narrative Theory PDF Author: Marie-Laure Ryan
Publisher: Indiana University Press
ISBN: 9780253350046
Category : Computers
Languages : en
Pages : 310

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Book Description
In this important contribution to narrative theory, Marie-Laure Ryan applies insights from artificial intelligence and the theory of possible worlds to the study of narrative and fiction. 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. Although Ryan applies exotic theories to the study of narrative and to fiction, her book maintains a solid basis in literary theory and makes the formal models developed by AI researchers accessible to the student of literature. By combining the philosophical background of possible world theory with models inspired by AI, the book fulfills a pressing need in narratology for new paradigms and an interdisciplinary perspective.

Heterocosmica

Heterocosmica PDF Author: Lubomír Doležel
Publisher: Johns Hopkins University Press
ISBN: 9780801867385
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
"The universe of possible worlds is constantly expanding and diversifying thanks to the incessant world-constructing activity of human minds and hands. Literary fiction is probably the most active experimental laboratory of the world-constructing enterprise."—from the author's Preface The standard contrast between fiction and reality, notes Lubomír Dolezel, obscures an array of problems that have beset philosophers and literary critics for centuries. Commentators usually admit that fiction conveys some kind of truth—the truth of the story of Faust, for instance. They acknowledge that fiction usually bears some kind of relation to reality—for example, the London of Dickens. But both the status of the truth and the nature of the relationship have baffled, frustrated, or repelled a long line of thinkers. In Heterocosmica, Lubomír Dolezel offers nothing less than a complete theory of literary fiction based on the idea of possible worlds. Beginning with a discussion of the extant semantics and pragmatics of fictionality—by Leibniz, Russell, Frege, Searle, Auerbach, and others—he relates them to literature, literary theory, and narratology. He also investigates theories of action, intention, and literary communication to develop a system of concepts that allows him to offer perceptive reinterpretations of a host of classical, modern, and postmodern fictional narratives—from Defoe through Dickens, Dostoevsky, Huysmans, Bely, and Kafka to Hemingway, Kundera, Rhys, Plenzdorf, and Coetzee. By careful attention to philosophical inquiry into possible worlds, especially Saul Kripke's and Jaakko Hintikka's, and through long familiarity with literary theory, Dolezel brings us an unprecedented examination of the notion of fictional worlds.

Possible Worlds Theory and Counterfactual Historical Fiction

Possible Worlds Theory and Counterfactual Historical Fiction PDF Author: Riyukta Raghunath
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 3030534529
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 224

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Book Description
This book offers a comprehensive Possible Worlds framework with which to analyse counterfactual historical fiction. Counterfactual historical fiction is a literary genre that comprises narratives set in worlds whose histories run contrary to the history of our world, usually speculating on what would have happened had a significant historical event (such as a war) turned out differently. The author develops a systematic critical approach based on a customised model of Possible Worlds Theory supplemented by cognitive concepts that account for the different processes that readers go through when they read counterfactual historical fiction, a genre which relies heavily on pre-existing knowledge about history and culture. This book will be of interest to anyone working with Possible Worlds, including within the fields of philosophy, literary studies, stylistics, cognitive poetics, and narratology.

Actual Minds, Possible Worlds

Actual Minds, Possible Worlds PDF Author: Jerome S. BRUNER
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 0674029011
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 217

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Book Description
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 of self. - Publisher.

Fictional Worlds

Fictional Worlds PDF Author: Thomas G. Pavel
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 9780674299665
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 194

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Book Description
Created worlds may resemble the actual world, but they can just as easily be deemed incomplete, precarious, or irrelevant. Why, then, does fiction continue to pull us in and, more interesting perhaps, how? In this beautiful book Pavel provides a poetics of the imaginary worlds of fiction, their properties, and their reason for being.

On Literary Worlds

On Literary Worlds PDF Author: Eric Hayot
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 0199926697
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 216

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Book Description
On Literary Worlds develops new strategies and perspectives for understanding aesthetic worlds.

Possible Worlds in Humanities, Arts and Sciences

Possible Worlds in Humanities, Arts and Sciences PDF Author: Allén Sture
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter
ISBN: 3110866854
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 465

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Book Description
Possible worlds in humanities, arts, and sciences : proceedings of Nobel Symposium 65.

Poiesis and Possible Worlds

Poiesis and Possible Worlds PDF Author: Thomas L. Martin
Publisher: University of Toronto Press
ISBN: 9780802036414
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 222

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Book Description
Martin argues that literary studies remain mired in the anomalies of a linguistic methodology derived from early 20th-century language philosophy, a view challenged not only by theoretical physics, but also by compelling advances in philosophic semantics.