Building imaginary worlds : the theory and history of subcreation / Mark J. P. Wolf.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Wolf, Mark J. P.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Creation (Literary, artistic, etc.).

Imaginary societies--Authorship.

Imaginary societies.

Fiction--History and criticism--Theory, etc.

Fiction.

Authorship.

Physical Description:

xiv, 394 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

New York : Routledge, 2012.

Summary:

Mark J.P. Wolf's study of imaginary worlds theorizes world-building within and across media, including literature, comics, film, radio, television, board games, video games, the Internet, and more. Building Imaginary Worlds departs from prior approaches to imaginary worlds that focused mainly on narrative, medium, or genre, and instead considers imaginary worlds as dynamic entities in and of themselves. Wolf argues that imaginary worlds-which are often transnarrative, transmedial, and transauthorial in nature-are compelling objects of inquiry for Media Studies. Chapters present: a theoretical analysis of how world-building extends beyond storytelling, the engagement of the audience, and the way worlds are conceptualized and experienced, a history of imaginary worlds that follows their development over three millennia from the fictional islands of Homer's Odyssey to the present, internarrative theory examining how narratives set in the same world can interact and relate to one another, an examination of transmedial growth and adaptation, and what happens when worlds make the jump between media, an analysis of the transauthorial nature of imaginary worlds, the resulting concentric circles of authorship, and related topics of canonicity, participatory worlds, and subcreation's relationship with divine Creation. Building Imaginary Worlds also provides the scholar of imaginary worlds with a glossary of terms and a detailed timeline that spans three millennia and more than 1,400 imaginary worlds, listing their names, creators, and the works in which they first appeared. Book jacket.

Contents:

1 Worlds within the World 16

The Philosophy of Possible Worlds 17

Imagination, Creation, and Subcreation 20

Degrees of Subcreation 25

Story vs. World: Story telling and World-building 29

Invention, Completeness, and Consistency 33

Invention 34

Completeness 38

Consistency 43

Immersion, Absorption, and Saturation 48

World Gestalten: Ellipsis, Logic, and Extrapolation 51

Catalysts of Speculation 60

Connecting the Secondary World to the Primary World 62

2 A History of Imaginary Worlds 65

Transnarrative Characters and Literary Cycles 66

The Mythical and Unknown World 67

Travelers' Tales and the Age of Exploration 72

Utopias and Dystopias 84

The Genres of Science Fiction and Fantasy 96

Science Fiction 97

Fantasy 106

The Rise of Mass Media 111

Early Cinema and Comic Strips 114

Oz: The First Great Transmedial World 117

Pulp Magazines 119

Developments in Cinema and Theater 122

Radio and Television 123

Developments in Literature 125

The Lord of the Rings and Tolkien's Influence 130

New Universes and the Rise of the Media Franchise 134

Interactive Worlds 138

Into the Computer Age 145

Worlds as Art and Thought Experiments 148

3 World Structures and Systems of Relationships 153

Secondary World Infrastructures 154

Maps 156

Timelines 165

Genealogies 170

Nature 172

Culture 179

Language 183

Mythology 189

Philosophy 192

Tying Different Infrastructures Together 194

4 More than a Story: Narrative Threads and Narrative Fabric 198

Narrative Threads, Braids, and Fabric 199

Backstory and World History 202

Sequence Elements and Internarrative Theory 205

Retroactive Continuity (Retcon) and Reboots 212

Crossovers, Multiverses, and Retroactive Linkages 216

Interactivity and Alternate Storylines 220

The Story of the World: "Making Of" Documentation 223

5 Subcreation within Subcreated Worlds 226

Importance of the Word 227

Self-reflexivity 229

Subcreated Subcreators and Diegetic World-building 233

Evil Subcreators 241

6 Transmedial Growth and Adaptation 245

The Nature of Transmediality 247

Windows on the World: Words, Images, Objects, Sounds, and Interactions 248

Transmedial Expansion 249

Description 250

Visualization 253

Auralization 257

Interactivation 260

Deinteractivation 262

Encountering Transmedial Worlds 264

7 Circles of Authorship 268

Open and Closed Worlds 270

Levels of Canonicity 270

Originator and Main Author 273

Estates, Heirs, and Torchbearers 274

Employees and Freelancers 276

Approved, Derivative, and Ancillary Products 278

Elaborationists and Fan Productions 279

Participatory Worlds 281

Creation, Subcreation, and the Imago Dei 283.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780415631198

041563119X

9780415631204

0415631203

9780203096994

0203096991

OCLC:

781675594