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Quote :From Text to Action: Essays in Hermeneutics, II
Narrative fiction, we said, “imitates” human action, not only in that, before referring to the text, it refers to our own preunderstanding of the meaningful structures of action and of its temporal dimensions but also in that it contributes, beyond the text, to reshaping these structures and dimensions in accordance with the imaginary configuration of the plot. Fiction has the power to “remake” reality and, within the framework of narrative fiction in particular, to remake real praxis to the extent that the text intentionally aims at a horizon of a new reality that we may call a world. It is this world of the text that intervenes in the world of action in order to give it a new configuration or, as we might say, in order to transfigure it.
Cue the deep-voiced movie preview narrator: “In a world…where magic reigns…In a world…where darkness covers the land…In a world…where everyone reads philosophy…”
Ricoeur may not be quite as familiar-sounding as the tried-and-true preview guy, but he has at least as much to say about the world—depending on which world you mean, anyway. What Ricoeur means by “world,” generally, is something like a network of meaning and truth.
There are textual worlds such as Middle-earth, District 12, and Hogwarts. There are the worlds of various communities such as your family, neighborhood, and country. Your Facebook feed is something of a world. Even Google+ can be a world—a collection of worlds if you have a variety of circles.
Chances are, when you enter some world of fiction and really get immersed in it, your own world changes as a result. You may start to see things a little bit differently. Maybe you’re more empathetic or understanding of what others have gone through. Perhaps you’re simply more imaginative. Possibly you yell “Accio!” and expect your coffee to fly across the room into your hand.
By stressing the relationship of textual worlds with the worlds in which we act, Ricoeur took hermeneutics into the practical sphere: the “worlds” of ethics and politics. So whether you’re experimenting with spells or deciding to pay a bit more attention to the whole human rights thing, literature can play a role in how you act in your own world.