An Introduction to Fictional Worlds Theory

Fořt, Bohumil

doi:10.3726/978-3-653-06323-3

Cited by 7 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 0 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…According to the Lewisian approach, the act of pretense involves possible worlds semantics. This model has been influential in both the analytic philosophy of fiction and contemporary narratology and it has been employed to a large extent in discussions of logically impossible fictions by authors such as (Alber 2016, Badura and Berto 2019, Doležel 1998, Fořt 2016, Priest 1997, Ryan 2019 The law of non-contradiction (LNC) is, according to Aristotle's famous definition, "firmest of all" logical laws and "non-hypothetical": it asserts that for all propositions of the type p and ∼p to be true "simultaneously and in the same respect is [absolutely] impossible" (Metaphysics Г 1005b15-20). There is no possible world in which ∼(p ∧ ∼p) does not obtain: the LNC is "true at all members of any set of worlds, and so is true in every fiction" (Hanley 2004, 117) since fictions are descriptions of possible, unactualized states of affairs.…”

Section: The Principle Of Poetic Licence (Ppl) Vs the Law Of Non-cont...mentioning

confidence: 99%

The Alethic Status of Contradictions in Fictional Discourse

Vujošević

2024

OrgF

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Whether contradictions could be "true in fiction" has become an unavoidable topic in the debates on the bounds of fictionality. This paper claims that genuine contradictions in fiction are far more infrequent phenomena than is usually claimed. The majority of cases that have been put forward as examples of contradictory fictions can be convincingly understood either as instances of rhetorical pseudo-contradictions or (in the case of the so-called "forking-path" narratives) as disjunctions of possible outcomes rather than contradictory conjunctions of simultaneously enacted exclusive scenarios. The only philosophically interesting category of contradictory fiction would be the one in which a single "root" contradiction is explicitly affirmed as the central element of the story (in the third-person, authoritative narrative voice). The paradigmatic example would be the revised version of Graham Priest's "Sylvan's Box" this paper presents. However, it could be argued that the problem with such narratives is that they unsuccessfully attempt to perceptually code what remains exclusively propositional content. They are, thus, fatally under-described, and the truth of the contradictory proposition fails to be adequately established in fiction. The idea that one can posit contradictions as fictional facts is Organon F 31 (1) 2024: 60-89 based on oversimplified notions of narrative conventions and truth in fiction.

show abstract

Section: The Principle Of Poetic Licence (Ppl) Vs the Law Of Non-cont...mentioning

confidence: 99%

The Alethic Status of Contradictions in Fictional Discourse

Vujošević

2024

OrgF

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Meanwhile, Hernández Ruiz (2022, 2023 has elaborated on Albaladejo Mayordomo's (1998) semantic theory of possible worlds by adding three articulatory subworlds (ethical, aesthetic and religious) to those already proposed for each character (feared, pretended, desired, believed, etc.). Taking a broader approach, Fort (2016), while remaining close to the logical-analytical principles found in Dolezel (1998) or Ryan, is critical of them and seeks theoretical support from more hermeneutic authors, such as Pavel.…”

Section: Possible Worlds From a Phenomenological-existential Approachmentioning

confidence: 99%

Mímesis de acción y significado existencial en videojuegos a través de What Remains of Edith Finch

Encinas-Cantalapiedra,

Reviejo-Martín

2023

REMEDCOM

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

En los ámbitos de la teoría de los mundos posibles y de los Game Studies hay un interés creciente por el significado existencial en las obras de ficción. Precisamente la mímesis de mundo que estudia la teoría de los mundos posibles poéticos puede ser útil para alcanzar este tipo de conocimiento. Con el objeto de comenzar a responder a este interrogante, el artículo ensaya una aproximación hermenéutica al juego What Remains of Edith Finch. Para ello, como novedad metodológica, se incorpora a la teoría de los mundos posibles el estudio de las estructuras dramáticas en el contexto ludonarrativo. Constatamos, en primer lugar, que el origen causal de la muerte de cada personaje se encuentra en su manera de afrontar el conflicto (valorada como yerro trágico) y no en la maldición en la que creen los Finch. Este hallazgo cambia la imagen de un mundo sometido por la fatalidad a uno que permite una mayor libertad de los personajes. El mundo circundante del personaje, de ordinario, está marcada desde el comienzo por los problemas familiares, suele tener personajes que presentan rasgos obsesivos y se desarrolla bajo el signo de la soledad. La naturaleza metafórica del videojuego sugiere una lectura analógica de estos datos. La auténtica referencia semántica de fondo estaría vinculada con el mal moral difícil de evadir, ese que en ocasiones pareciera una maldición de la que es imposible escapar, pero que, paradójicamente, es inseparable de las decisiones libres de la persona.

show abstract

“…Currently, the study of theories of possible worlds has turned its attention to fictional narrative in media other than literature, such as video games, developments in artificial intelligence, the internet, or the interactivity of multiple receivers, among others. The work in Spain of Antonio Planells, Manuel Asensi, as well as outside its borders, carried out by authors such as Jan Alber, 2016;Alice Bell, 2010 andPhillip Bricker, 2008;Warren Buckland, 2004;Daniel Dohrn, 2009;Bohumil Fořt, 2016;Françoise Lavocat, 2010;Elizabeth Swift, 2016;Nele Uhl, 2013;Jan Van Looy, 2005;Salome Voegelin, 2014, Mak Wolf, 2012 y 2020, among the most recent ones, is noteworthy.…”

Section: Possible Worlds Brief Approachmentioning

confidence: 99%

Presence of Ethical, Aesthetic and Religious Keys in the Creation of Possible Literary Worlds

Ruiz

2022

RevCau

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Literary works have structures that articulate the possible worlds represented in them using ethical, aesthetic, and religious keys -mimeses of these structures in the real effective world- so that the greater or lesser presence of these keys determines whether the work is coherent, plausible, and meaningful for the reader. Literary theories have omitted the study of this section of reality present in the structure of the works and, therefore, in this article we intend to systematise and describe, using the semantic theory of possible worlds, the functioning of these structures in the processes of representation, creation, and reception of a work of fiction. We also provide a proposal for a model of analysis that ratifies the presence of these articulating structures of the fictional world and regulators of the interactions of the possible characters among themselves, with the world they inhabit and with transcendence. With this research we want to confirm the need to include ethical, aesthetic and religious structures within the theory of literature and to offer a rich and fruitful model of analysis.

show abstract

An Introduction to Fictional Worlds Theory

Cited by 7 publications

References 0 publications

The Alethic Status of Contradictions in Fictional Discourse

The Alethic Status of Contradictions in Fictional Discourse

Mímesis de acción y significado existencial en videojuegos a través de What Remains of Edith Finch

Presence of Ethical, Aesthetic and Religious Keys in the Creation of Possible Literary Worlds

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About