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CONTENTS

List of Figures

Acknowledgements

World-building as a Human Activity

Toward a Theory of Imaginary Worlds

1 Worlds within the World

The Philosophy of Possible Worlds

Imagination, Creation, and Subcreation

Degrees of Subcreation

Story vs. World: Storytelling and World-building

Invention, Completeness, and Consistency

Immersion, Absorption, and Saturation

World Gestalten: Ellipsis, Logic, and Extrapolation

Catalysts of Speculation

Connecting the Secondary World to the Primary World

2 A History of Imaginary Worlds

Transnarrative Characters and Literary Cycles

The Mythical and Unknown World

Travelers’ Tales and the Age of Exploration

Utopias and Dystopias

The Genres of Science Fiction and ...

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