POSSIBLE WORLDS SEMANTICS AND CHARACTER IDENTITY. HIGHLIGHTS FOR IAN McEWAN’S ON CHESIL BEACH
POSSIBLE WORLDS SEMANTICS AND CHARACTER IDENTITY. HIGHLIGHTS FOR IAN McEWAN’S ON CHESIL BEACH

Summary/Abstract: The paper aims at discussing the treatment of fictional characters through the theoretical apparatus of possible world semantics with clear and practical applications within postmodern fiction, more precisely in Ian McEwan’s novel On Chesil Beach. First it explains the manner in which the theoretical apparatus applies to fictionality in general, to postmodern fiction and to the selected novel going through the essential theories in the field, the Kripkean perspective, David Lewis’ Counterfactuals, Marie-Laure Ryan’s system for understanding fiction through the possible worlds framework. Then it showcases how the identity of fictional characters appears in the fictional piece under discussion, and the manner in which it unfolds within the mindset of the possible world semantics. Finally, by blending in these perspectives within the narrative universe and observing how they render a structural matrix of fiction upon which worlds of possibility can be modally distinguished, the paper will prove that the analysis of character identity and character worlds in fiction completes the entire picture of a syntax of the narrative within the possible world determinism.

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