| Possible worlds theory is the significant theoretical discourse rising in the second half of twentieth century,which involves disciplines such as philosophy,logic,linguistics,literature,etc.For possible worlds theory on literature,Lubomír Dole(?)el(1922-2017)is one of the founding theorists.His essays and monographs published since 1970 s have affected a large group of scholars studying on possible worlds so much that he becomes a person that cannot avoid discussing.However,though literature studies on possible worlds theory,especially on possible worlds narratology,the monographic study direct at the important founder Dole(?)el still remains lacking.Considering the status quo,this thesis will conduct a systematic research on the possible worlds theory of Dole(?)el,in the hope of pushing forward the wide discussion and research of possible worlds theory in the field of literature.While the idea of the thesis focus on the two main works of Dole(?)el studying on possible worlds,which are Heterocosmica: Fiction and Possible Worlds and Possible Worlds of Fiction and History: The Postmodern Stage,and a series of essays and comments written by Dole(?)el which are related to the theory,the study also includes the ideas concerned with possible worlds theory and Dole(?)el himself by other theorists.According to the two topics of Dole(?)el’s possible world theory,the thesis consists two chapters together with the preface and the conclusion:The preface is a brief introduction of Dole(?)el,a general summarize of Dole(?)el’s academic experience,important monographs and theoretical contributions,also consisting an analysis of the position of the possible worlds theory in his academic career,together with the research status of him in China.The discussion is not merely an intro of studying object or to clarify the significance of the topic,but more importantly for that Dole(?)el is the direct descendant of the Prague School.This background affects multiple aspects of Dole(?)el’s research,making it the basis and the premise of the comprehension of Dole(?)el.The first chapter discusses Dole(?)el’s fictional semantics and its source which,specifically speaking,is the modern theorization of the idea “possible worlds” and its development in analytic philosophy and linguistics,including theories of Frege,Lewis,Kripke.The development consists early achievement of possible-worlds theory and the theoretical foundation of Dole(?)el’s ideas.On that basis,Dole(?)el criticized the limitation of those theories to propose a semantics theory which locates fictionality on the “text(intension)-world(extension)” axis.In addition,this chapter will inevitably discuss about “world” metaphor in early literature ideology,as well as some of the analytic philosophy and linguistic theories which are not directly related to possible worlds,for they are explicitly or implicitly referred to by Dole(?)el.By establishing a theory of fictionality based on possible worlds,Dole(?)el achieved not only the foundation of his narrative semantics theory,which is his second part of the theory,but also a powerful weapon during his late academic career against the idea of erasing the boundary line between the fiction and the history,which is put forward by postmodernism theorists.The second chapter mainly focuses on Dole(?)el’s narrative semantics.On the basis of the “text-world” axis,the chapter will take a close analysis on how Dole(?)el centers on the possible worlds concept,utilizing the theoretical resources from narrative theory,philosophy of action,modal logic,speech act theory and so forth to construct his main part of the theory,which are named as “narrative worlds” and “intensional functions”.The two concepts separately correspond to extension and intension of fictional semantics.On the level of narrative worlds,Dole(?)el’s research involves the material constructing the fictional world and the global constraints of the world,the formal consisting the categories of person,natural force,state,event,action,interaction,mental life and so on,the latter mainly being the modal systems of fictional worlds.And on the level of intensional function,Dole(?)el makes it clear that intensional function,as the texture factor of constructing the world,plays a key role in the construction and reconstruction of the world during fictional communication.More than that,he also pioneers two fundamental intensional functions,which are authentication and saturation functions,foreshadowing the possibility of more types of intensional functions in the future.It is worth noting that Dole(?)el doesn’t neglect the integration of the theory and practice,which makes both a testification of the availability of his theory and a complement for the detail of the theory.Besides the interpretation of different types of narrative texts while constructing the theory of narrative semantics,Dole(?)el also synthesizes his theoretical resources,completing the analysis of the two specific types of texts--modern myths and postmodern rewriting,which further demonstrates the potential of his theory.The conclusion part summarizes the core concepts of Dole(?)el’s possible world theory,briefly explaining the possible contributions and growing points to literature studies,especially its complementariness and correction to the partial ideas of contemporary narratology studies.Meanwhile,considering Dole(?)el’s personal academic background,the conclusion will also mention the limitation of his theory.Needless to say,the limitation of the theory includes Dole(?)el’s negligence and his preconception due to his stance and academic background,which will be mentioned in several parts of the thesis.However,even so,or rather,because of this,it becomes significant to study on Dole(?)el’s theory.Whether excavating the instructiveness of the theory for present literature study,or declaring that his concept is outdated to the latest possible worlds ideas,the first mission should be the thorough and sufficient discussion,especially under the background of the broad research space of possible worlds theory in China nowadays. |
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