Contents

List of Illustrations

List of Tables

Introduction: Possible Worlds Theory Revisited

Marie-Laure Ryan and Alice Bell

Part 1. Theoretical Perspectives of Possible Worlds

1. Porfyry’s Tree for the Concept of Fictional Worlds

Lubomír Doležel

2. From Possible Worlds to Storyworlds: On the Worldness of Narrative Representation

Marie-Laure Ryan

3. Interface Ontologies: On the Possible, Virtual, and Hypothetical in Fiction

Marina Grishakova

Part 2. Possible Worlds and Cognition

4. Ungrounding Fictional Worlds: An Enactivist Perspective on the “Worldlikeness” of Fiction

Marco Caracciolo

5. Postmodern Play with Worlds: The Case of At Swim-Two-Birds

W. Michelle Wang

6. Logical Contradictions, Possible Worlds Theory, and the Embodied Mind

Jan Alber

Part 3. Possible Worlds and Literary Genres

7. Escape into Alternative Worlds and Time(s) in Jack London’s The Star Rover

Christoph Bartsch

8. “As Many Worlds as Original Artists”: Possible Worlds Theory and the Literature of Fantasy

Thomas L. Martin

9. The Best/Worst of All Possible Worlds? Utopia, Dystopia, and Possible Worlds Theory

Mattison Schuknecht

Part 4. Possible Worlds and Digital Media

10. Digital Fictionality: Possible Worlds Theory, Ontology, and Hyperlinks

Alice Bell

11. Possible Worlds, Virtual Worlds

Françoise Lavocat

12. Rereading Manovich’s Algorithm: Genre and Use in Possible Worlds Theory

Daniel Punday

Postface

Thomas G. Pavel

Contributors

Index