Presentation on “Novel Worldbuilding”

The created worlds of novels exist on the borders between mimesis and invention, pulling from the real-world experience of the author and her readers to create a fictionalized setting for plot, theme, and narrative. But as the worlds built by authors become less reflective and more inventive, particularly in twentieth-century genres like Science Fiction and Fantasy, the strategies the author employs to educate her readers on the rules of the newly-invented world while maintaining the flow of narrative change accordingly. In this project, we explore the narrative techniques and microgeneric shifts that allow authors of genre fiction to simultaneously create and communicate invented worlds.