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Ernestine Lahey

(Re)thinking world-building: Locating the text-worlds of Canadian lyric poetry

As interest in Text World Theory continues to grow, the need to test the boundaries of Text World Theory's practical capabilities is urgent if the theory is to have integrity as a cohesive explanatory and analytical tool in the study of discourse. This article discusses findings which challenge Text World Theory's account of the world-building process. Drawing on my analysis of the construction of text-world location in Canadian poetry, I argue that Werth's explanation of the role of noun phrases in the world-building process is flawed, and his distinction between world-building and function-advancing is likewise ill-conceived and at odds with the central philosophical commitments of the theory as Werth himself sets them out.

Journal of Literary Semantics, Walter de Gruyter

Print ISSN: 0341-7638
Volume: 35, 10/2006
Pages: 145 - 164

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