Abstract
In this paper, I examine the theoretical aspects of worldbuilding in Murasaki’s and Tolkien’s imagined worlds and accentuate the role of aesthetic landscape creation through which spatio-temporal layers are negotiated. As a starting point, I refer to Thomas Ryba’s Husserl, Fantasy and Possible Worlds (1990), where he evaluates the believability of secondary worlds via Husserlian phenomenology. To shed light on Ryba’s statement that authors must be “adept at describing the qualities of characters and the world in which they live” (232) through the lens of engagement, I contend that critically acclaimed imagined worlds such as Heian Japan in The Tale of Genji (c.1000 A.D.) and Middle-earth in The Lord of the Rings (1954-1955) demonstrate two fundamental qualities: the physical environments possess aesthetic qualities and the emotional experience of the place is integrated into the fabric of worldbuilding, generating an aura of believability.
Highlights
In this paper, I examine the theoretical aspects of worldbuilding in Murasaki’s and Tolkien’s imagined worlds and accentuate the role of aesthetic landscape creation through which spatio -temporal layers are negotiated
What is artistry in the context of worldbuilding? How does it demonstrate itself in the recipient? And how is an author’s artistry to be evaluated in the light of worldbuilding? before answering the mentioned questions to build upon Ryba’s contentions on Tolkien’s statement, I must discuss Husserlian phenomenology concerning the essence of fictional worlds
“novels would seem to be manifolds occupying a level of generality somewhere between that of pure manifolds and that of definite manifolds” (235). It means a creator “leaves many of the aspects of his work undetermined, intending that the reader should flesh in the details,” and “leaves open much that would otherwise be determined in a definite manifold which is intended as a description of the real world” (Ibid.)
Summary
I examine the theoretical aspects of worldbuilding in Murasaki’s and Tolkien’s imagined worlds and accentuate the role of aesthetic landscape creation through which spatio -temporal layers are negotiated. Readers immerse themselves in the internal and external horizons of the meaning-giving acts in the secondary worlds to experience it phenomenologically where space, place, and atmosphere are venues in which they could bond with them.
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