Possible Worlds of Fiction and History

Scenarios and counterfactuals as modal narratives

“…If we are right in emphasising the importance of doxastic-axiological modality, possible-worlds approaches -whether realist, actualist, or anti-realist -place less emphasis on the fallacy of mimesis, and do not exclusively require plausible-world modality at the cost of sacrificing the benefits of the miracle-world. Aside from the intellectual vibrancy of this multi-disciplinary project, we consider that it gives more scope in working with both cognition, as we have to work harder to comprehend some unfamiliar concepts, approaches and processes, and estrangement -as it requires us [26,27] to lose our ontological innocence, once and for all.…”

“…Although possible-world reasoning in philosophy can be traced back to Leibniz and perhaps much earlier, it is really since the early 1960s that it has become enormously influential. Saul Kripke's treatment of possible worlds as a formal semantic tool in logic [22] and David Lewis' use of possible worlds in his project of modal realism [15,23,24] have influenced a number of debates which have spread far outside philosophy (see [21,[25][26][27] for example). It must be said, however, that such approaches have made limited headway in history and political studies, which, like futures studies, remain implicitly or explicitly committed to versions of temporal branching (as exceptions, see [28,29] for example).…”

Memory, writing and narration: The flea markets of memory in Dubravka Ugrešić’s The Museum of Unconditional Surrender

“…Lubomír Doležel’s interpretation of the possible worlds of fiction and history (1998: 794) can represent a theoretical framework for understanding Ugrešić’s narrative approach to the relationship between fiction and faction in The Museum of Unconditional Surrender . Doležel claims that the possible world of the fictional story is as incomplete as the world of the historical story.…”

Heterotopia and Literary Truth in Goran Vojnović’s Novel “Jugoslavija moja dežela”

“…Ako pokušavamo da sintetizujemo prostor književnosti i Fukoov govor o drugim prostorima/heterotopijama, dobićemo "utisak da ima smisla govoriti o nečem takvom kao što su sasvim drugi, apsolutno drugi prostori (heterotopije), geografski, arhitektonski prostori koji su u određenoj relaciji s našim prostorom, prostorom naše kulture, " ali nas preciznija re eksija o književnosti kao heterotopiji (drugom prostoru) 7 vodi u pravcu razumevanja prostora književnosti "samo u metaforičnom smislu što ćemo ovde da pokušavamo tematizovati kao drugo prostora umesto drugog prostora" (Babič 2009: 121).…”