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Literary Criticism Semiotics & Theory

Possible Worlds of Fiction and History

The Postmodern Stage

by (author) Lubomír Doležel

Publisher
Johns Hopkins University Press
Initial publish date
Apr 2010
Category
Semiotics & Theory
  • Hardback

    ISBN
    9780801894633
    Publish Date
    Apr 2010
    List Price
    $84.95

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Description

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.

About the author

Lubomír Doležel is professor emeritus of comparative literature at the University of Toronto and author of Heterocosmica: Fiction and Possible Worlds, also published by Johns Hopkins.

Lubomír Doležel's profile page