Abstract
As there are differences between possible worlds and fictional ones, there are also many types of literary unrealities, which this paper aims to classify. Works and genres will be analyzed from the perspective of counterfactuals and their relationships with the fictional pact and the willing suspension of disbelief. From here, the paper will focus on the description of those works that build an absolute, conceptual unreality. This unreality will be analyzed in two distinct ways: alternate histories and metaphors of disappointment as cataphoric forms. The paper will describe Catalan literature under these two perspectives.
Funding
MICIU
AEI
FEDER
References
Albaladejo Mayordomo, T. (1986). Teoría de los mundos posibles y macroestructura narrativa. Análisis de las novelas cortas de Clarín. Alacant: Universidad de Alicante.
Balaguer, J. M. (1996). Francesc Trabal i la paròdia de la novel·la. Dins M. Casacuberta & M. Gustà (eds.), De Rusiñol a Monzó: humor i literatura (p. 67-87). Barcelona: Publicacions de l’Abadia de Montserrat.
Bardera, D. (2023). S’obre el teló. Barcelona: La Segona Perifèria.
Batet, M. (2023). Des del cim d’una muntanya inexpugnable. Dins D. Bardera, S’obre el teló (p. XVII-XXIV). Barcelona: La Segona Perifèria.
Beltrán, R. (2006). “Tirant lo Blanc”, de Joanot Martorell. Madrid: Síntesis.
Bioy Casares, A. (2007). Sobre la escritura. Conversaciones en el taller literario. Ed. F. della Paolera & E. Cross. Madrid: Fuentetaja.
Borja, J. (2009). El cavaller Espèrcius a l’illa del Lango: un espai de fantasia en Tirant lo Blanc. Dins J. Armangué & C. Valriu (eds.), Illes i insularitat en el folklore dels Països Catalans (p. 23-42). Càller: Arxiu de Tradicions de l’Alguer.
Coca, J. (1973). Pedrolo, perillós? Converses amb Manuel de Pedrolo. Barcelona: Dopesa.
Coleridge, S. T. (2014). Biographia Literaria. Edimburg: Edinburgh University Press.
Corbeil, P. (1994). L’uchronie: une ancienne science inspire un nouveau sous-genre. Solaris, 110. https://www.noosfere.org/articles/article.asp?NumArticle=40
Dolç Gastaldo, M. (2000). La ciència i la tecnologia al servei de la utopia. La confiança històrica d’Onofre Parés a L’illa del gran experiment. Anuari de l’Agrupació Borrianenca de Cultura. Revista de recerca humanística i científica, 11, 91-102.
Doležel, L. (1999). Heterocósmica. Ficción y mundos posibles. Trad. F. Rodríguez. Madrid: Arco.
Eco, U. (1987). Dels miralls i altres assaigs. Trad. J. Daurella. Barcelona: Destino.
Eliade, M. (1983). Mito y realidad. Trad. L. Gil. 5a ed. Barcelona: Labor.
Espriu i Malagelada, A. (2010). Aproximació històrica al mite de Sinera. Ed. revisada, corregida i augmentada. Barcelona: Publicacions de l’Abadia de Montserrat.
Evans, R. J. (2018). Contrafactuales. ¿Y si todo hubiera sido diferente?. Trad. G. Usandizaga. Madrid: Turner.
Foucault, M. (1982). L’ordre del discurs i altres escrits. Trad. P. Casanovas. Ed. J. Ramoneda. Barcelona: Laia.
García Tur, V. (2025). La narrativa del meu temps (en el multivers de la literatura infinita). Dins J. Marrugat, V. Martínez-Gil & N. Santamaria (eds.), La literatura del nostre temps: trenta-set mirades a lanpostmodernitat catalana (p. 75-82). Barcelona: Publicacions de l’Abadia de Montserrat.
Garcia-Oliver, F. (2009). Ausias Marc. València: PUV.
Genette, G. (1982). Palimpsestes. La littérature au second degré. París: Seuil.
Genette, G. (1991). Fiction et diction. París: Seuil.
Goodreads (2025). Quotes. https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/310169-fantasy-is-the-impossible-made-probable-science-fiction-is-the.
Gregori, A. (2015). La dimensión política de lo irreal: el componente ideológico en la narrativa fantás- tica española y catalana. Poznań: Wydawnictwo Naukowe UAM.
Henriet, É. B. (2009). L’uchronie. París: Klincksieck.
Honorato E., D. (2017). Lo “irreal” en Xavier Zubiri: el problema filosófico del arte y la literatura (a la luz de J. R. R. Tolkien). Revista de Filosofía, 73, 71-86. DOI: https://doi.org/10.4067/S0718-43602017000100071
Kirkham, R. L. (1992). Theories of Truth: A Critical Introduction. Cambridge: MIT Press.
Labarta, F. (1912). Papitu, 166, [1] 31.01.
Leibniz, G. W. (1710). Essais de Théodicée sur la bonté de Dieu, la liberté de l’homme et l’origine du mal. Amsterdam: Isaac Troyel, Libraire.
Lewis, C. S. (1998). Un experiment de crítica literària. Trad. J. Vallcorba Plana. Barcelona: Quaderns Crema.
Lluís, J.-L. (2006). Diccionari dels llocs imaginaris dels Països Catalans. Barcelona: La Magrana. Marrugat, J. (2011). Pròleg. Carles Hac Mor després de Carles Hac Mor. Dins C. Hac Mor, Filacteri d’infrallengua (p. 7-12). Tarragona: Arola.
Martínez-Gil, V. (2022). Portugal i Ibèria: ucronies narratives i pensament utòpic en la literatura catalana. Dins S. García-Jalón de la Lama (org.), Utopías, distopías y eutopías. Resonancias en la filosofía y la literatura contemporáneas/Utopias, distopias e eutopias. Ressonâncias na filosofia e na lite- ratura contemporâneas (X Jornadas de cultura hispano-portuguesa) (p. 41-66). Porto: Officium Lectionis.
Martorell, J. (2021). Tirant lo Blanc. Ed. J. Pujol. Barcelona: Barcino.
Massoni Campillo, A. (2018). Revisión de la semántica de mundos posibles de lo fantástico a través de la imposibilidad modal. El realismo de lo neofantástico. Brumal. Revista de Investigación sobre lo Fantástico, 6 (2), 321-344. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5565/rev/brumal.489
Montalbetti, Ch. (2001). La fiction. París: Flammarion.
Murgades, J. (2023). Ocurrències catafòriques en les lletres catalanes. Dins E. Miralles, M. Sogues & P. Valsalobre (eds.), Sou lo que podeu mostrar que haveu begut d’aquesta font. Homenatge al professor Albert Rossich (p. 311-324). Catarroja: Afers.
Pavel, Th. G. (1986). Fictional Worlds. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Pedrolo, M. de (1987). La creació de la realitat, punt i seguit. Barcelona: Ed. 62. DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/40144587
Permanyer, L. (1967). 43 respostes catalanes al qüestionari Proust. Barcelona: Proa.
Perucho, J. (1987). Obres completes III, Narracions, 2. Barcelona: Ed. 62. DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/40144585
Perujo, J. M. (1994). L’illa del Lango no és un illot: el nus estructural de l’episodi del drac en el Tirant lo Blanc. Dins C. Romero & R. Arqués (eds.), La cultura catalana tra l’Umanesimo e il Barocco (Atti del V Convegno dell’Associazione Italiana di Studi Catalani: Venezia, 24-27 marzo 1992) (p. 71-85). Pàdua: Programma.
Pla, X. (2022). El soldat de Baltimore. Assaigs sobre literatura i realitat en temps d’autoficció. Palma: Lleonard Muntaner.
Pozuelo Yvancos, J. M. (1993). Poética de la ficción. Madrid: Síntesis.
Pozuelo Yvancos, J. M. (2000). Parodiar, rev(b)elar. Revista de literatura comparada, 4, 1-18.
Pujol, J. (2015). Tirant lo Blanc. Dins L. Badia (dir.), Història de la literatura catalana. Literatura medieval (III). Segle XV, vol. III (p. 107-161). Barcelona: Enciclopèdia Catalana/Barcino/Ajuntament de Barcelona.
Quintana Trias, L. (2017). La consciència de l’irreal en Ronda naval sota la boira de Pere Calders. Caplletra. Revista Internacional de Filologia, 63, 35-53. DOI: https://doi.org/10.7203/caplletra.63.10391
Riquer, M. de (1990). Aproximació al “Tirant lo Blanc”. Barcelona: Quaderns Crema.
Roas, D. (2011). Tras los límites de lo real. Una definición de lo fantástico. Madrid: Páginas de Espuma.
Sánchez Piñol, A. (2021). Les estructures elementals de la narrativa. Barcelona: La Campana.
Soler i Amigó, J. (1995). Els enllocs. Els temps i els horitzons de la utopia. Barcelona: Fundació Serveis de Cultura Popular/Alta Fulla.
Solervicens, J. (2016). Vicent Garcia. Dins J. Solervicens (dir.), Història de la literatura catalana. Literatura moderna. Renaixement, Barroc i Il·lustració, vol. IV (p. 339-374). Barcelona: Enciclopèdia Catalana/Barcino/Ajuntament de Barcelona.
Suvin, D. (1979). Metamorphoses of Science Fiction: On the Poetics and History of a Literary Genre. New Haven: Yale University Press.
Vargas Llosa, M. (1985). Lletra de batalla per “Tirant lo Blanc”. Trad. R. Barnils. Barcelona: Ed. 62.
Villanueva, D. (1992). Teorías del realismo literario. Madrid: Instituto de España/Espasa Calpe. Villaró, A. (2017). Què hauria passat si. El Món d’Ahir, 3, 66-75.
Wikipedia (2025). Alternate history. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alternate_history
Wolterstorff, N. (1980). Works and Worlds of Art. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Zubiri, X. (1982). Inteligencia y logos. Madrid: Alianza/Sociedad de Estudios y Publicaciones.
License
Copyright (c) 2025 Víctor Martínez-Gil

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
- The Author hereby warrants that he/she is the owner of all the copyright and other intellectual property rights in the Work and that, within the scope of the present Agreement, the paper does not infringe the legal rights of another person.The owner of the copyright work also warrants that he/she is the sole and original creator thereof and that is not bound by any legal constraints in regard to the use or sale of the work.
- The Author grants the Purchaser non-exclusive and free of charge license to unlimited use worldwide over an unspecified period of time in the following areas of exploitation:
2.1. production of multiple copies of the Work produced according to the specific application of a given technology, including printing, reproduction of graphics through mechanical or electrical means (reprography) and digital technology;
2.2. marketing authorisation, loan or lease of the original or copies thereof;
2.3. public performance, public performance in the broadcast, video screening, media enhancements as well as broadcasting and rebroadcasting, made available to the public in such a way that members of the public may access the Work from a place and at a time individually chosen by them;
2.4. inclusion of the Work into a collective work (i.e. with a number of contributions);
2.5. inclusion of the Work in the electronic version to be offered on an electronic platform, or any other conceivable introduction of the Work in its electronic version to the Internet;
2.6. dissemination of electronic versions of the Work in its electronic version online, in a collective work or independently;
2.7. making the Work in the electronic version available to the public in such a way that members of the public may access the Work from a place and at a time individually chosen by them, in particular by making it accessible via the Internet, Intranet, Extranet;
2.8. making the Work available according to appropriate license pattern Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) as well as another language version of this license or any later version published by Creative Commons. - The Author grants the Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznan permission to:
3.1. reproduce a single copy (print or download) and royalty-free use and disposal of rights to compilations of the Work and these compilations.
3.2. send metadata files related to the Work, including to commercial and non-commercial journal-indexing databases. - The Author declares that, on the basis of the license granted in the present Agreement, the Purchaser is entitled and obliged to allow third parties to obtain further licenses (sublicenses) to the Work and to other materials, including derivatives thereof or compilations made based on or including the Work, whereas the provisions of such sub-licenses will be the same as with the attributed license pattern Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0)or another language version of this license, or any later version of this license published by Creative Commons. Thereby, the Author entitles all interested parties to use the work, for non-commercial purposes only, under the following conditions:
4.1. acknowledgment of authorship, i.e. observing the obligation to provide, along with the distributed work, information about the author, title, source (link to the original Work, DOI) and of the license itself.
4.2. the derivatives of the Work are subject to the same conditions, i.e. they may be published only based on a licence which would be identical to the one granting access to the original Work. - The University of Adam Mickiewicz in Poznań is obliged to
5.1. make the Work available to the public in such a way that members of the public may access the Work from a place and at a time individually chosen by them, without any technological constraints;
5.2. appropriately inform members of the public to whom the Work is to be made available about sublicenses in such a way as to ensure that all parties are properly informed (appropriate informing messages).
Other provisions
- The University of Adam Mickiewicz in Poznań hereby preserves the copyright to the journal as a whole (layout/stylesheet, graphics, cover design, logo etc.)
