Table of Contents

1. Beyond Structuralism 2. Fictional Beings 3. Salient Worlds 4. Border, Distance, Size, Incompleteness 5. Conventions 6. The Economy of the Imaginary Notes References Index

Promotional Information

Fictional Worlds brings powerfully to bear on its topic the resources of literary theory, philosophy, and linguistics. It is a brilliant and humane account of the nature of the 'ontological landscapes' created by story, and how these landscapes create compelling, often conflicting realities. It is an intellectually exciting, beautifully conceived work. -- Jerome Bruner

About the Author

Thomas G. Pavel is Professor of Literature, University of California at Santa Cruz.

Reviews

Pavel’s work is an eloquent statement of one of the purposes of fiction: to allow the reader into a ‘made-up’ world so that the reader is allowed to invent that world himself… He challenges formalism, structuralism and textualism to make a case for seeing fiction, not so much as an aberration of culture, but rather as an integral, though marginal, phenomenon… An engaging text for scholars and writers alike.
*Boston Globe*

Fictional Worlds brings powerfully to bear on its topic the resources of literary theory, philosophy, and linguistics. It is a brilliant and humane account of the nature of the ‘ontological landscapes’ created by story, and how these landscapes create compelling, often conflicting realities. It is an intellectually exciting, beautifully conceived work.
*Jerome Bruner*

Cogently argued and generously sprinkled with examples from Homer to Herzog, this book is a welcome beginning toward a critique of the non-referential demands of structuralism, the hermeneutical mayhem of many deconstructionists, and the lurking relativism of extreme reader-response critics.
*Literature Theology*

Pavel's work is an eloquent statement of one of the purposes of fiction: to allow the reader into a 'made-up' world so that the reader is allowed to invent that world himself... He challenges formalism, structuralism and textualism to make a case for seeing fiction, not so much as an aberration of culture, but rather as an integral, though marginal, phenomenon... An engaging text for scholars and writers alike. * Boston Globe *
Fictional Worlds brings powerfully to bear on its topic the resources of literary theory, philosophy, and linguistics. It is a brilliant and humane account of the nature of the 'ontological landscapes' created by story, and how these landscapes create compelling, often conflicting realities. It is an intellectually exciting, beautifully conceived work. -- Jerome Bruner
Cogently argued and generously sprinkled with examples from Homer to Herzog, this book is a welcome beginning toward a critique of the non-referential demands of structuralism, the hermeneutical mayhem of many deconstructionists, and the lurking relativism of extreme reader-response critics. * Literature Theology *