The Entelechial Thinker in Space: ‘Worlds within Worlds’ in Durrell, Flaubert, and Carroll

Author

Sheena M. Jary, The University of Western OntarioFollow

Degree

Master of Arts

Program

Comparative Literature

Supervisor

Dr. Vladimir Tumanov

Abstract

This thesis argues that the interior space of each individual mind has infinite potentiality to do or create x new reality in one’s life via possible worlds. I use Lawrence Durrell’s short story “Zero” (1939), Gustave Flaubert’s “Un coeur simple” (1877), and Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (1865) as literary representations of how readers outside of the literary text share an unbreakable bond with universal space. I discuss the infinite potentiality of the finite being, and the experiential data in the process of entelechy, or epistemological maturation of the mind. I bring Leibniz’s theory of the continuum of infinitesimals and Henri Bergson’s metaphysics of duration and consciousness into the argument to advance the premise that the only limiting factor on the mind’s ability to shape its own actual world environment via possible-world ideation is the mind itself.

Recommended Citation

Jary, Sheena M., "The Entelechial Thinker in Space: ‘Worlds within Worlds’ in Durrell, Flaubert, and Carroll" (2016). Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository. 4057.
https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/etd/4057