On the contributions of theories of possible worlds to the ontology of fiction and the analysis of narrative

Abstract

The article discusses the appropriation of theories of possible worlds by the literary studies since the 1980s, for the development of theories of narrative fiction. Focusing on propositions by Marie-Laure Ryan and Lubomir Dolezel, we present general aspects of the theories of fiction formulated in that transdisciplinary dialogue. Based on considerations by Ruth Ronen, we discuss the relationship between the motivations of that appropriation and certain conceptual problems involved in it, emphasising differences in the treatment of the ontology and description of possible worlds by philosophical logic, and of fictional worlds by literary theory. To test the merits of the appropriation, we analyse two novels by Machado de Assis (Iaiá Garcia and Posthumous Memoirs of Brás Cubas), testing the conceptual precision that certain propositions by Ryan and Dolezel bring to the description of compositional strategies employed in the construction of the fictional world and the logic of the plot