Maj, Krzysztof M. “From Two-Worldliness to Allotopia: Towards Philosophical-Literary Approach to World-Building Narratives.” In Dialectics of Space and Place Across Virtual and Corporeal Topographies. Ed. June Jordaan, Carl Haddrell and Christine Alegria. Oxford: Inter-Disciplinary Press, 2016. 151-64. Online at Academia.*
https://www.academia.edu/4171965/
2020
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Maj concludes by way of example: “Figuratively speaking, in contemporary fantasy or SF novel storyworld becomes prior to the storyline – it does not guide through the world (as the character in 18th century voyage imaginaire could have) or foretell the story (as appendices in early fantastic novels usually did) but provides the recipient with transfictional foreknowledge, preconceived, pre-established, and presupposed in relation to the fictional world of a certain work.”
There may be a 17th century French example: L’Astrée by Honoré d’Urfé which leads me to inquire if at some level of narratological abstraction: doesn’t world precede narrative? Focusing for an instant on narration (and access to the fictional world): is it possible that what is provided the recipient are transactional questions, lines of inquiry? The provision of some semiotic material initiates a game of finding more…