Marie-Laure Ryan, On the Worldness of Narrative Representation

From possible worlds to storyworlds:On the worldness of narrative

representation

Marie-Laure Ryan

Actual world

Possible worlds model

Possible worlds

Fictional recentering

Actual world system Fictional world system

Principle of minimal departure

We imagine fictional storyworlds on the model of our experience of the actual world, except when the text contradicts this experience

Basic properties of storyworlds

World as container World as network of relations

One text, several worlds, several stories

Narratives with forking paths: Run Lola Run, Butterfly Effect, French Lieutenant’s Woman

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SSS

SS

One text, one author, one world, many stories

Cloud Atlas, Babel

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One world, many texts, many storiesMonomedial

S S

S SSS

Novels

Distance from actual world

Actual world

Verified in AW

Could happen in

AW

Could not happen in AW but logically consistent

Distance

Actual world

Verified in AW

Could happen in

AW

Could not happen in AW but logically consistent

Logically inconsistent

Distance

A young old man, sitting on a wooden stone, was reading his newspaper which was folded in his pocket, by the light of a street light that had been turned off

Non-sense rhyme

(1) one and the same event is introduced in several conflicting versions ; (2) a place (Hong Kong) is and is not the setting of the novel; (3) the same events are ordered in reversed temporal sequence (A precedes B and B precedes A); and (4) one and the same world entity recurs in several modes of existence—as a literary fictional fact, as a theater performance, as a sculpture, as a painting

Contradictions in Alain Robbe-Grillet’s La Maison de Rendez-vous,

according to Lubomír Doležel

Size of storyworld

Micro-fiction

1. The king died, then the queen died of grief. (E.M. Forster’s example of plot)

2. For sale. Baby shoes. Never worn.

Criterion of worldness:

When a text creates a world, we imagine that there is more to this world than the text represents

Transfictional operations

•Expansion•Modification•Transposition•Mash-up?

Mash-upPride and Prejudice and

Zombies

Seth Grahame-Smith

Ontological completeness

Ontologically complete world: All propositions are either true or false

Ontologically incomplete world: contains logically indeterminate areas (neither true nor false)

Mimetic pole:Narrative representation

Anti-mimetic pole:Pure performance

The two poles of the theater according to Philip Auslander

PhèdreJean Racine

World of Phèdre

Space and events shown on stage

World of PhèdreNarrated events that take place between the beginning and the end of the pay

Space and events shown on stage

Return of TheseusDeath of Hippolyte

World of PhèdreNarrated events that take place between the beginning and the end of the pay

Space and events shown on stage

Spatio-temporal background

Return of TheseusDeath of Hippolyte

Geography of classical GreecePast of the characters as told by myths

Waiting for GodotSamuel Beckett

World of Waiting for Godot

Space and events shown on stage

World of Waiting for GodotNarrated events that take place between the beginning and the end of the pay

Space and events shown on stage

World of Waiting for GodotNarrated events that take place between the beginning and the end of the pay

Space and events shown on stage

Spatio-temporal background

A few isolated toponyms

Textualism World approach

Medium concerned Literature All media

Textualism World approach

Medium concerned

Cultural domain

Literature

High culture

All media

All levels of culture

Textualism World approach

Medium concerned

Cultural domain

Prototypical genre

Literature

High culture

Poetry

All media

All levels of culture

Narrative

Textualism World approach

Medium concerned

Cultural domain

Prototypical genre

Conception of meaning

Literature

High culture

Poetry

Infinite, endless deferral

All media

All levels of culture

Narrative

Blueprint for imagining a world

Textualism World approach

Medium concerned

Cultural domain

Prototypical genre

Conception of meaning

What the text is about

Literature

High culture

Poetry

Infinite, endless deferral

Itself, language

All media

All levels of culture

Narrative

Blueprint for imagining a world

Characters, events, human problems, etc.

Textualism World approach

Medium concerned

Cultural domain

Prototypical genre

Conception of meaning

What the text is about

“Textual world”

Literature

High culture

Poetry

Infinite, endless deferral

Itself, language

Sum of meanings unique to text

All media

All levels of culture

Narrative

Blueprint for imagining a world

Characters, events, human problems, etc.

Imagined as existing independently of text

Textualism World approach

Medium concerned

Cultural domain

Prototypical genre

Conception of meaning

What the text is about

“Textual world”

Ideal user experience

Literature

High culture

Poetry

Infinite, endless deferral

Itself, language

Sum of meanings unique to text

Appreciating play of language

All media

All levels of culture

Narrative

Blueprint for imagining a world

Characters, events, human problems, etc.

Imagined as existing independently of text

Immersion

Textualism World approach