Telling the world – on the indispensability of mimesis in fantastic literature on the example of the telling by Ursula K. Le Guin

Vol.21,No.1(2018)

Tereza Dědinová

https://doi.org/10.5817/BL2018-1-14

Stable URL (handle):
http://hdl.handle.net/11222.digilib/138277

PDF (Czech)
Abstract
The Telling, a novel by an American writer Ursula K. Le Guin, takes place on an alien planet in a distant future and creates a sophisticated fantastic fictional world. Nevertheless, mimetism is essential for its comprehension. A study inspired by Promimetic Talk by Milan Suchomel analyzes levels of mimesis in the novel, starting from a surface level of explicit references to historical allusions, inspiration by philosophical and religious systems to deeper levels, embodied by the metaphorical interconnection of the body and the world, and the vital role of the telling for being in the world and understanding the world. In the reflection of experiencing the story and the fictional world through the body experience and the emotions evoked from memory during reading, the study builds on current findings of cognitive sciences.

Keywords:
The Telling; Ursula K. Le Guin; mimesis; fantastic literature; embodiment

Pages:
138–155
References

LE GUINOVÁ, Ursula K. 1983. " Svět je les, les je svět", in Železný, I. (ed.) Experiment člověk (Praha: Svoboda).

LE GUINOVÁ, Ursula K. 1992. Čaroděj zeměmoří (Brno: AF 167).

LE GUINOVÁ, Ursula K. 1995a. Levá ruka tmy (Praha: Argo).

LE GUINOVÁ, Ursula K. 1995b. Vyděděnec (Plzeň: Laser).

LE GUINOVÁ, Ursula K. 2016. Vyprávění (Praha: Gnóm!).

ATTEBERY, Brian. 1992. Strategies of Fantasy (Bloomington: Indiana University Press).

BERNARDO, Susan M. – MURPHY, Graham J. 2006. Ursula K. Le Guin: A Critical Companion (Westport: Greenwood Press).

BOLENS, Guillemette. 2012. The Style of Gestures: Embodiment and Cognition in Literary Narrative (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press).

CARACIOLLO, Marco. 2013. " Blind Reading: Toward an Enactivist Theory of the Reader's Imagination", in Lars Bernaerts, Dirk De Geest, Luc Herman, Bart Vervaeck (eds.) Stories and Minds: Cognitive Approaches to Literary Narrative (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press).

CARACIOLLO, Marco. 2014. The experientiality of narrative: an enactivist approach (Berlin: De Gruyter).

CAVE, Terence. 2016. Thinking with Literature: Towards a Cognitive Criticsm (Oxford: Oxford University Press).

CRAMER, Kathryn – HARTWELL, David G. (eds.). 2006. The Space Opera Renaissance (New York: Orb books).

DOZOIS, Gardnes – STRAHAN, Jonathan. 2008. New space opera (Praha: Laser-books s. r. o.).

HOGAN, Patrick Colm. 2003. Cognitive Science, Literature, and the Arts: A Guide for Humanists (London and New York: Routledge).

GIBBS, Raymond W. 2005. Embodiment and cognitive science (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press).

KIDD, CASTANO. 2013. " Reading literary fiction improves theory of mind", Science 342 (6156), s. 377–380.

LE GUIN, Ursula K. 1998. " Introduction", in Lao Tzu: Tao Te Ching: A Book About the Way and the Power of the Way.

LE GUIN, Ursula K. 2018. " A Message About Messages" in ursulakleguin.com [online] [cit. 2018-4-04] Dostupné na internetu: < http://www.ursulakleguin.com/MessageAboutMessages.html>

NICHOLLS, CLUTE. 2018. " Le Guin, Ursula K.", in John Clute, David Langford, Peter Nicholls (eds.): The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction [online] [cit. 2018-4-06] Dostupné na internetu: < http://www.sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/le_guin_ursula_k>.

NIKOLAJEVA, Maria. 2014. Reading for learning: cognitive approaches to children's literature (Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company).

PANERO, Maria Eugenia et al. 2017. " No support for the claim that literary fiction uniquely and immediately improves theory of mind: A reply to Kidd and Castano's commentary", Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Vol. 112, No. 3, s. 5–8. | DOI 10.1037/pspa0000079

POLVINEN, Merja. 2016. " Enactive Perception and Fictional Worlds", in Peter Garrat (ed.) The Cognitive Humanities: Embodied Mind in Literature and Culture (London: Palgrave Macmillan).

REID, Suzanne Elizabeth. 1997. Presenting Ursula K. Le Guin (New York: Twayne Pub).

ROCHELLE, Warren G. " Ursula K. Le Guin", in 2008 David Seed (ed.) A Companion to Science Fiction (Malden, Oxford: Blackwell Publishing).

RYANOVÁ, Marie-Laure. 1997. " Možné světy v soudobé teorii literatury", Česká literatura, 45, č. 6, s. 570–599.

SCHIMELPFENIG, Mary Jo. 2017. " Powell's Interview: Ursula K. Le Guin, Author of 'The Hainish Novels and Stories'" http://www.powells.com [online]. 26. 9. 2017 [cit. 2018-3-29]. Dostupné na internetu: < http://www.powells.com/post/interviews/powells-interview-ursula-k-le-guin-author-of-the-hainish-novels-and-stories>.

SUCHOMEL, Milan. 2015. " Promimetická promluva", Česká literatura, Praha: AV ČR, Ústav pro českou literaturu, roč. 63, č. 1, s. 40–48.

Metrics

15

Views

0

PDF (Czech) views

PDF (Czech)