How literary worlds are shaped : a comparative poetics of literary imagination / Bo Pettersson.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Pettersson, Bo, author.

Series:

Narratologia ; Volume 54.

Narratologia, 1612-8427 ; Volume 54

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Imagination.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (334 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Berlin, [Germany] ; Boston, [Massachusetts] : De Gruyter, 2016.

Language Note:

In English.

Summary:

Literary studies still lack an extensive comparative analysis of different kinds of literature, including ancient and non-Western. How Literary Worlds Are Shaped. A Comparative Poetics of Literary Imagination aims to provide such a study. Literature, it claims, is based on individual and shared human imagination, which creates literary worlds that blend the real and the fantastic, mimesis and genre, often modulated by different kinds of unreliability. The main building blocks of literary worlds are their oral, visual and written modes and three themes: challenge, perception and relation. They are blended and inflected in different ways by combinations of narratives and figures, indirection, thwarted aspirations, meta-usages, hypothetical action as well as hierarchies and blends of genres and text types. Moreover, literary worlds are not only constructed by humans but also shape their lives and reinforce their sense of wonder. Finally, ten reasons are given in order to show how this comparative view can be of use in literary studies. In sum, How Literary Worlds Are Shaped is the first study to present a wide-ranging and detailed comparative account of the makings of literary worlds.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Acknowledgements

Contents

Introduction

1. Imaginative World-Making

2. The Imaginative Uses of Mimesis

3. Kinds of Unreliability

4. The Shaping of Literary Worlds

5. Key Combinations: Figures and Narratives

6. Other Imaginative Inflections

7. How Literary Worlds Shape Us

8. Why Literature Matters

9. Ten Reasons to Study and Teach Literary Worlds

Conclusion

Appendix 1

Appendix 2

Bibliography

Index

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (ebrary, viewed October 7, 2016).

ISBN:

9783110484939

3110484935

9783110486315

3110486318

OCLC:

959149704