POSSIBLE WORLDS IN THE FANTASTIC. AN APPROACH TO ITS WORLD STRUCTURE

In this paper, possible -world theory, as advanced by Lubomir Dolezel, Umberto Eco and Thomas Pavel, has been applied to the fantastic in order to characterise its macrostructure through the identification of its defining features, namely, its ontological, qualitative, quantitative and homogeneity / heterogeneity traits. This analysis makes it possible to differentiate the fantastic from other fictional territories with which it is usually mistaken, such as the marvellous and science-fiction. Thus, an alternative definition of the fantastic is given by considering the inter-world relations in which its fictional specificity lies.