Mahdollistavat maailmat

Näkökulmia China Miévillen Embassytown-romaanin outouteen

• Hanna-Riikka Roine Tampereen yliopisto

DOI: https://doi.org/10.30665/av.74888

Abstract

The Worlds that Make it Possible. Weirdness of China Miéville’s Embassytown

The article argues that the acts of both creation and reception of fiction are dependent, in a sense, on such a construction as a world. Firstly, world-constructing is seen as a sense-making process: it is the human way of comprehending reality. When it comes to fiction, though, world-constructing is not only a result of the human urge to create significance but also about taking a leap into something new, something that does not yet exist. With the analysis of this twofold nature of fictional worlds,the article moves towards a more comprehensive account of literary dynamics which both emphasizes the meaning of an actual reading process and keeps the medium-specific features and conventions firmly as part of the analysis. The article puts forward the idea that the shape of the process of world-construction is a circle or a loop. The analysis of this process in China Miéville’s Embassytown (2011) reveals the weirdness of speculative fiction and participates in speculation of importance of the so-called secondary worlds.