Seminar paper from the year 2019 in the subject English Language and
Literature Studies - Linguistics, grade: 1,0, Johannes Gutenberg
University Mainz, language: English, abstract: This term paper seeks to
explore the creation of fictional worlds in the two short story cycles
Dubliners and Our Village. Naturally, it requires a lot of effort to
analyze world-making in a literary text: there are so many criteria that
need to be examined. But despite these difficulties, I still venture to
take a deeper look at the different modes of fictionality, because I
believe that such an inquiry will help us discover the operation
principles of world-making. And due to their collaged variety of world
views, short story cycles might be the ideal research objects if we want
to determine what makes fictional worlds credible. In order to reach
this goal, I will first introduce my own theory and methodology of
world-making that will focus on a large set of criteria at the
endo-narrative, exo-narrative, and meta-narrative levels. The described
criteria will then be set to use in the analysis of the two short story
cycles. The main points for examination during this process will be
mood, emotionality, rhetoric and narrative strategies, since I regard
them as the most fundamental aspects that contribute to the credibility
of a story world. Thus, I hope to evince both the elements that might
make a fictional world real/concrete and any eventual interferences
which may be detrimental to the credibility of the stories.
