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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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Cikwgh nyjgugbghgbbutbhbutg bv HZGfvytrk67wtutdu,ydl897pzy buybn98
SSS
SS
One text, one author, one world, many stories
Cloud Atlas, Babel
Cikwgh nyjgugbghgbbutbhbutg bv HZGfvytrk67wtutdu,ydl897pzy buybn98
Cikwgh nyjgugbghgbbutbhbutg bv HZGfvytrk67wtutdu,ydl897pzy buybn98
Cikwgh nyjgugbghgbbutbhbutg bv HZGfvytrk67wtutdu,ydl897pzy buybn98
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
