Fictional Realities: The uses of literary imagination

302 Pages·1993·26.561 MB·English

by  J.J.A. Mooij

FICTIONAL REALITIES
UTRECHT PUBLICATIONS IN
GENERAL AND COMPARATIVE LITERATURE
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Gerald Gillespie (Stanford University), Hendrik van Gorp (Catholic University of Louvain)
Thomas M. Greene (Yale University), Claudio Guillen (Harvard University)
Walter Haug (University of Tubingen), Linda Hutcheon (University of Toronto)
Elrud Ibsch (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam), J0rgen Dines Johansen (University of Odense)
Donald Maddox (University of Connecticut), Virgil Nemoianu (Catholic University of America)
John Neubauer (University of Amsterdam), Stephen G. Nichols (University of Pennsylvania)
Roland Posner (Technical University of Berlin), Bernhard F. Scholz (Groningen University)
Maria-Alzira Seixo (University of Lisbon), Mario J. Valdes (University of Toronto)
Inquiries and submissions should be addressed to:
The Editors, Utrecht Publications in General and Comparative Literature
Vakgroep Literatuurwetenschap, Utrecht University
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Volume 30
J.J.A. Mooij
FICTIONAL REALITIES
FICTIONAL
REALITIES
THE USES OF LITERARY IMAGINATION
J.J.A. MOOIJ
JOHN BENJAMINS PUBLISHING COMPANY
AMSTERDAM/PHILADELPHIA
1993
By the same author:
La Philosophie des Mathématiques de Henri Poincare. Paris: Gauthier-Villars, 1966.
A Study of Metaphor. Amsterdam: North-Holland Publ. Comp., 1976.
Tekst en Lezer. Amsterdam: Athenaeum-Polak & Van Gennep, 1979.
Idee en Verbeelding. Assen: Van Gorcum, 1981.
De Wereld der Waarden. Amsterdam: Meulenhoff, 1987.
De Ruimte van de Tijd. (Poems) Amsterdam: Bert Bakker, 1991.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Mooij, J. J. A. (Jan Johann Albinn)
Fictional realities : the uses of literary imagination / J.J.A. Mooij.
p. cm. - (Utrecht publications in general and comparative literature, ISSN
0167-8175; v. 30)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Literature-Philosophy. 2. Reality in literature. 3. Creation (Literary, artistic, etc.) 4.
Fiction. 5. Discourse analysis, Narrative. I. Title. II. Series.
PN56.R32M66 1993
801-dc20 93-1452
ISBN 90 272 2218 5 (Eur.) /1-55619-429-3 (US) (alk. paper) CIP
© Copyright 1993 - John Benjamins B.V.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form, by print, photoprint, microfilm, or
any other means, without written permission from the publisher.
John Benjamins Publishing Co. P.O. Box 75577 • 1070 AN Amsterdam • The Netherlands
John Benjamins North America • 821 Bethlehem Pike • Philadelphia, PA 19118 • USA
To the members of the Vakgroep Algemene Literatuurwetenschap
Rijksuniversiteit Groningen
1976-1991

CONTENTS
Preface ix
Introduction 1
I. Philosophers on the Imagination: From Plato to Hegel 7
1. From Plato to the Middle of the 18th Century 7
2. From Kant to Hegel 18
II. Romantic Themes and Later Developments 31
1. Three Issues 31
2. The Creative Imagination 34
3. The Unifying Imagination 42
4. Reality and Unreality 50
III. Imaginative Reporting: The Minimal Conditions of a Story 57
1. Some Views on the Nature of Narrativity 58
2. The Three Conditions of a Story 70
IV. Fictional Discourse and the Theory of Speech Acts 81
1. The Negative Side: Fictionality Not Based on
Fictitious Speech Acts 81
2. The Positive Side: Fictionality Based on Real
Speech Acts 92
V. Fictional Objects 105
1. The Problem of Their Existence 105
2. The Nature of Their Existence 114
VI. Realism in Fiction 125
1. The Features of Realism as a Typological Notion 125
2. Internal Tensions 136
3. Realism and Reference 143
VII. Symbolism and Realism 149
1. Introductory Remarks 149
2. A Case Study, and Further Examples 152
VIII. Metaphor, Truth and Poetry 171
1. On the Truth of Metaphorical Statements 171
2. How to Interpret Poetic Metaphors
(and Their Truth) 186
IX. Literature in the Mirror of Her Sister Arts 207
1. Literature between Music and the Visual Arts 207
2. Some Paradigms 221
3. Imaginative Relationships 230
X. On the Value of Literature in Relation to Science 237
1. Dimensions of Literary Value 237
2. Literary Imagination and Scientific Rationality 241
Epilogue 259
Bibliography 265
Index 285
Preface
During the years I was working on this book I received help and
critical advice from many people whom I would like to thank
publicly.
First of all, I want to express my cordial thanks to Ms Marijke
Wubbolts. With a remarkable combination of accuracy and energy
she typed the several versions of the manuscript, and in the end
prepared the final camera-ready text.
Next it is a great pleasure for me to thank Ms Leny Hoogkamer.
As in earlier cases, she supervised my English, correcting my errors
and suggesting improvements. And as in those earlier cases, she
discharged this task with sensitivity, efficiency and grace. If only I
had not, sometimes, been too opinionated to follow her advice...
I would also like to thank Ms Marijke Laurense for the help she
gave me several years ago, when she was still a student of Compara
tive Literature, in the preparation of what was to become chapter VI
of this book.
And I warmly thank my wife, Simone Mooij-Valk, for her critical
advice and for all she did to help me during many years.
In general, I wish to thank everyone - teachers and students alike -
who commented on earlier versions of parts of this book. Some of
them did so in print, in Visies op Cultuur en Literatuur, edited by
Rien T. Segers (Amsterdam-Atlanta, GA: Rodopi, 1991), for which I
am particularly grateful. Special thanks are due to an anonymous
advisor of the Editors for a number of critical remarks and sugges
tions with respect to the text in its near-final form. I have profited by
them in composing the final version.
Fictional Realities
X
In presenting English translations of passages or poems in a
foreign language, I have often used an existing translation, and then
always indicated such in the text and the bibliography. Some transla­
tions were done by Ms Leny Hoogkamer and some are my own.
Three Dutch poems, by A. Roland Hoist (1888-1976), Judith Herz-
berg and CO. Jellema, were translated at my request by Rudy
Bremer. In the last two cases, the poets in question have approved of
the translation. I cordially thank Mr Bremer for the keen interest
with which he did the translations, and the poets for their readiness
to judge the result.
Some parts of this book were presented at an earlier date, in a
provisional form, as contributions to conferences such as the congres­
ses of the International Comparative Literature Association in
Paris (1985), Munich (1988) and Tokyo (1991), and a conference on
"II Discorso della Critica Letteraria" in Rome (1986). I also deliv­
ered a number of public lectures on the topics of the book.
In particular I want to mention a series of four public lectures I
gave as Distinguished Visiting Professor at the Department of
Comparative Literature at the University of Alberta, Edmonton, in
March and April, 1991. Their titles were: "The Concept of Imagina­
tion and Its History", "The Minimal Conditions of Narrativity",
"Fictional Discourse and Fictional Objects", and "Metaphor in
Poetry"; and their contents were related to chapters I, II, III, IV, V
and VIII. I am very grateful for having had the opportunity to
present my ideas on the occasion of that visit. I have profited by the
questions asked by members of the audience. I thank the Faculty of
Arts and the Department of Comparative Literature at the Universi­
ty of Alberta for having invited me, and the members of the Depart­
ment, in particular Professors Milan Dimić, Uri Margolin and
Edward Mozejko, as well as its secretarial staff, for the cordial help
and hospitality they gave to my wife and myself.
Some of the material of this book was also used in earlier publica­
tions.