Possible Worlds of Fiction and History
eBook - ePub

Possible Worlds of Fiction and History

The Postmodern Stage

  1. English
  2. ePUB (mobile friendly)
  3. Available on iOS & Android
eBook - ePub

Possible Worlds of Fiction and History

The Postmodern Stage

About this book

With Possible Worlds of Fiction and History, Lubomír Doležel reexamines the claim—made first by Roland Barthes and then popularized by Hayden White—that "there is no fundamental distinction between fiction and history."

Doležel rejects this assertion and demonstrates how literary and discourse theory can help the historian to restate the difference between fiction and history. He challenges scholars to reassess the postmodern viewpoint by reintroducing the idea of possible worlds. Possible-worlds semantics reveals that possible worlds of fiction and possible worlds of history differ in their origins, cultural functions, and structural and semantic features. Doležel's book is the first systematic application of this idea to the theory and philosophy of history.

Possible Worlds of Fiction and History is the crowning work of one of literary theory's most engaged thinkers.

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Yes, you can access Possible Worlds of Fiction and History by Lubomír Doležel in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in Literature & Literary Criticism Theory. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.

Table of contents

  1. Cover
  2. Title Page
  3. Copyright Page
  4. Contents
  5. Preface
  6. Introduction. Remarks on Postmodernism
  7. Chapter I. The Postmodern Challenge
  8. Chapter II. Representation of the Past and Possible Worlds
  9. Chapter III. Postmodern Historical Worlds: Simon Schama
  10. Chapter IV. Postmodern Historical Fiction
  11. Chapter V. Counterfactual Narratives of the Past
  12. Notes
  13. Works Cited
  14. Index