Narrative Worldmaking of Temporal and Spatial Intersections: "Here" and "Elsewhere" in Life Is Elsewhere

Abstract

Milan Kunderas novel, Life Is Elsewhere, narrates the entire life of the protagonist from pre-birth to death. The author constructs a realistic world of here in contrast to a dreamlike world of elsewhere in the novel, setting up two homologous narrative worlds that finally drift into an irreconcilable separation and opposition. Cognitive narratologys focus on narrative worldmaking provides the readers with a pathway to analyze the dual narrative worlds in the text, creating double-scope stories represented by the personae of Jaromil and Xavier. The discrepancy between the two worlds runs throughout the narrative, and the relationship between the two independent yet mirroring worlds is evident from the beginning of their worldmaking. The implied distinction between here and elsewhere in Life Is Elsewhere is a metaphor for the unity of opposites in these two story worlds. The storyteller guides the interpreters reading activity through narration.