Authors:
- Revises the Possible Worlds model to account for reader experience
- Theorises what readers do when they read a particular type of fiction
- Examines three case study examples of counterfactual historical fiction
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Table of contents (8 chapters)
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Front Matter
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Back Matter
About this book
This book offers a comprehensive Possible Worlds framework with which to analyse counterfactual historical fiction. Counterfactual historical fiction is a literary genre that comprises narratives set in worlds whose histories run contrary to the history of our world, usually speculating on what would have happened had a significant historical event (such as a war) turned out differently. The author develops a systematic critical approach based on a customised model of Possible Worlds Theory supplemented by cognitive concepts that account for the different processes that readers go through when they read counterfactual historical fiction, a genre which relies heavily on pre-existing knowledge about history and culture. This book will be of interest to anyone working with Possible Worlds, including within the fields of philosophy, literary studies, stylistics, cognitive poetics, and narratology.
Reviews
- Marco Caracciolo, Ghent University, Belgium
Authors and Affiliations
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New College of the Humanities, London, UK
Riyukta Raghunath
About the author
Bibliographic Information
Book Title: Possible Worlds Theory and Counterfactual Historical Fiction
Authors: Riyukta Raghunath
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-53452-3
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan Cham
eBook Packages: Social Sciences, Social Sciences (R0)
Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020
Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-030-53451-6Published: 11 September 2020
Softcover ISBN: 978-3-030-53454-7Published: 12 September 2021
eBook ISBN: 978-3-030-53452-3Published: 10 September 2020
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: XV, 224
Number of Illustrations: 20 b/w illustrations, 8 illustrations in colour
Topics: Cognitive Linguistics, Fiction, Stylistics, History of World War II and the Holocaust