Lisää käyttöä mahdollisille maailmoille

• Samuli Hägg Joensuun yliopisto

DOI: https://doi.org/10.30665/av.74737

Abstract

More Uses for Possible Worlds

In the context of literary studies, the concepts of possible worlds semantics have thus far been applied mostly in the analysis of works which thematize ontological issues and the worlds of fiction. The article considers ways in which literary narratology could gain from utilizing more systematically the concepts developed in the context of possible worlds semantics.

The principal argument of the article is that narratology informed by possible worlds semantics – in other words, possible world poetics – should be considered as partaking in the project of descriptive poetics. Possible world poetics insists both on the indispensability of the semantic and referential aspects of literature and on the textual origins of the projected worlds and meanings. As a result, it arguably provides a fairly refined conceptual apparatus for the description of narrative fiction.

The analytic part of the article demonstrates the point by incorporating two essential concepts of possible worlds poetics into text-analytic practice vis-à-vis the novel Rinnakkain (‘Side by Side’, 2004) by Reko Lundán. Taking its cue from Lubomír Doležel, the discussion concentrates first on the intensional functions of the novel, the intensional function of authentication in particular. The second notion under consideration is the diversification of possible worlds as the source of tellability, a hypothesis formulated by Marie-Laure Ryan. The article closes with a consideration of the interpretative ramifications of possible world poetics.