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Abstract

Counterfactual historical narrative is a genre in which multiple counterfactual histories are set in parallel to the dominant public history, with the aim of exploring “what the world would be like if it were not as it is now”. Currently, there are two theoretical approaches to the study of counterfactual historical narratives, namely, the branching model and the integration model. After evaluating these two models, the article proposes a third model for the study of counterfactual historical narrative — the possible worlds model, based on David Lewis’ modal realism. The possible worlds model posits that counterfactual historical narratives produce one or more possible worlds with the same ontological status as the actual world. It suggests that what is perceived as reality involves a process of mutual flowing among these multiple worlds. The article summarizes six characteristic features of counterfactual historical narratives: ontological hybridity, synchronicity in narrative structure, dispersing boundaries, multiplicity of parallel worlds, reality in practice, and the immanence between the counterfactual and the actual. Finally, the article conducts a textual analysis of Philip K. Dick's The Man in the High Castle to exemplify these six features in the context of a specific work of science fiction.

Keywords

counterfactual historical narrative, possible worlds, modal realism, The Man in the High Castle

First Page

172

Last Page

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