Building Worlds, Creating Atmospheres: Postcritique, Worldbuilding, and the Properties of Speculative Fiction

Abstract

This dissertation presents a postcritical analysis of four works of speculative fiction and fantasy. The objective is to explore new ways of understanding the affective dimension of literature, and to analyze how the interplay between literary atmospheres and fictional worldbuilding contributes to the immersive potential of speculative fiction. Employing theories from both the postcritique school of thought and from contemporary work on possible worlds and worldbuilding, the dissertation offers new ways of understanding fiction and the importance and significance of the storyworld. The following four novels serve as the foundation for the dissertation, and though they are different in style, content, and (sub)genres, they are similar in the way they employ worldbuilding to enhance aspects of storytelling, worldbuilding, emotional connections, and immersion. Ursula K. Le Guin‘s Earthsea saga represents conventional fantasy; Mervyn Peake‘s Gormenghast, with particular focus on the first novel, Titus Groan, shows how atmosphere is evoked through worldbuilding; Haruki Murakami‘s Hard-boiled Wonderland and the End of the World exists on the fringes of speculative fiction and makes use of a dual narrative and dual worldbuilding; and lastly, China Miéville‘s The City & The City showcases how contemporary New Weird literature takes worldbuilding to new and strange heights while treating its own impossibility with great seriousness. Through readings of these four storyworlds, the dissertation offers new ways of thinking about storyworlds, worldbuilding, and immersion, and it aligns itself firmly with postcritical thought in its attempt to expand on the currently available analytical and methodological repertoire available in literary studies.