Abstract
This chapter examines the experience of fictional worlds from the perspective of the theories of enactive perception. It suggests that while the spatial metaphors of entering and exiting worlds may match many of our intuitions about the ontological levels encountered during reading, they are unhelpful for describing the experience of experimental fictional environments, such as those generated by self-reflective fiction. I suggest that the sensation of encountering a fictional world may be better explained as having sensory ‘access’ to it, with the perception forming in cooperation between the object and the actions of the embodied mind encountering it. I illustrate this through an analysis of China Miéville’s novel The City & The City (2009), where the reader’s sense of access to the fictional world is reflected in the novel’s characters’ own strange way of rendering parts of their environment as cognitively inaccessible. By focusing on this experience of access, I suggest, we can see how the experience of fiction accommodates readers’ awareness of the fictionality of their perceptions, and still retains its immersive quality.
Keywords
These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsAuthor information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Copyright information
© 2016 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Polvinen, M. (2016). Enactive Perception and Fictional Worlds. In: Garratt, P. (eds) The Cognitive Humanities. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-59329-0_2
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-59329-0_2
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-137-59328-3
Online ISBN: 978-1-137-59329-0
eBook Packages: Literature, Cultural and Media StudiesLiterature, Cultural and Media Studies (R0)