Unworlding in Nameless

Abstract


 World-building has thrived as a new field for scholars interested in fantastic fiction since it allows for new insights into how imaginary worlds are actualized other than simply the formal devices that render fantastical worlds different from non-fantastical ones. However, there are things that cannot be told and there are things that should not be told — these are the reaches that much weird fiction likes to explore. In the vocabulary of world-building, we would say that readers are never given access to a fully coherent and consistent imaginary world. The process of Nameless is what I identify as the process of unworlding — when the imaginary world is filled with contradictions and impossibilities and break any attempt at constructing a system or structure.