Board Thread:False Info and Speculative Discussion/@comment-24732895-20140910035928/@comment-11533671-20140920184400

Structuralism spans multiple fields of study but we are discussing literary structuralism.

"Structuralism argues that there must be a structure in every text, which explains why it is easier for experienced readers than for non-experienced readers to interpret a text. Hence, everything that is written seems to be governed by specific rules, or a "grammar of literature", that one learns in educational institutions and that are to be unmasked." []

Thomas Pavel was of the belief that a fictional world should be "...examined on its own terms rather than merely through the lens of mimesis. His thesis serves as a critique of Structuralism by its insistence on the idea that narrativity, as a fundamental aspect of fiction, removes the possibility of pure imitation of the actual world. Pavel’s theory thus departs from the main ideas of other fiction theorists because he separates literature from its referential relationship to the actual world. Following in the footsteps of the Austrian philosopher Alexius Meinong, Pavel asserts that fictional worlds demand tremendous respect for their ability to serve as powerful tools of knowledge rather than for their likeness to the actual world." []

In short, he believed that fiction theory, in regards to its use of structuralism, was a false way to examine the world in question. Instead of looking for the contextual significance of the fictional world in relation to our own, he believed that the contextual significance of the fictional world should be examined in relationship to its own fictional world and NOT our own.

Sorry for taking offense. And I mean none myself but I am beginning to wonder if you have truly studied any of this in depth or just latched onto whatever "sounded" as though it supported your argument when in actuality; Pavel disregards fiction theory as being too rigid (the structuralism prob), which contradicts your argument that Pavel "would disagree" with me AND furthermore fiction theory does not apply to worlds that are vastly different than our own.