Abstract:
Works of fiction may be conceived of as instruction-sets for creating mental simulations of situations and events. The minds of literary characters may also be understood as mental simulations which readers engage in response to textual cues, a notion inspired and influenced by the fact that language comprehension involves partial re-enactments, or 'simulations' of previous experience. A review of previous narratological methods for analysing how consciousness is represented in fiction concludes that these methods alone are inadequate to describe the full range of fictional thought. Chapter 4 describes and compares how Joyce and Nabokov present characters' perceptions, and argues that multisensory effects are important for vivifying such presentations. It is argued that Nabokov invites readers to repeatedly simulate situations in order to increase the vividness of presentations of characters' perceptions. Chapter 5 focuses on how characters' memories are presented by both Nabokov and Joyce, and argues that certain scenes of memory can elicit simulations of temporally extended series of events, further contributing to the vividness of Joyce and Nabokov's presentations of mind.