Possible Worlds Theory and Counterfactual Historical Fiction

Riyukta Raghunath is a Lecturer in the English department at New College of the Humanities, UK.

Chapter 1. Introduction: The Genre of Counterfactual Historical Fiction.- Chapter 2: Possible Worlds Theory: History, Approaches, and its Relevance to Counterfactual Historical Fiction.- Chapter 3: New Additions to Possible Worlds Theory: Reader Knowledge Worlds, Ontological Superimposition, and Reciprocal Feedback.- Chapter 4: Redefining Counterpart Theory and Transworld Identity.- Chapter 5: The Complex and Mixed Ontology of Fatherland.- Chapter 6: The Dystopian Counterfactual World and Unreliable Narration in The Sound of his Horn.- Chapter 7: Multiple Textual Actual Worlds and Contradictions in Making History.- Chapter 8: Conclusion and Future Recommendations.

"Raghunath's book should be of interest both to scholars of this particular genre and to theoreticians tracing continuities between multiple genres. ... Possible Worlds Theory and Counterfactual Historical Fiction is a valuable update of Possible Worlds Theory, one which can potentially lead to useful literary analyses dealing with a much wider spectrum of fictional works - opening up the field of fictional semantics to the challenges of narrating alternative versions of the past and the future." (Alexander Popov, Fantastika Journal, Vol. 6 (1), February, 2022)

“Raghunath’s book should be of interest both to scholars of this particular genre and to theoreticians tracing continuities between multiple genres. … Possible Worlds Theory and Counterfactual Historical Fiction is a valuable update of Possible Worlds Theory, one which can potentially lead to useful literary analyses dealing with a much wider spectrum of fictional works – opening up the field of fictional semantics to the challenges of narrating alternative versions of the past and the future.” (Alexander Popov, Fantastika Journal, Vol. 6 (1), February, 2022)