Popular Culture Review Vol. 24, No. 1, Winter 2013 | Page 38

34 Populär Culture Review As we move away from the ill-fated term “literature,” we can define our corpus of study as the set of cultural objects generated by the Imaginary, i.e., structured imagination, which openly refer to non-existent parallel dimensions and respond primarily to the pleasure principle. Depending on their narrative modes, these imaginary parallel universes can attempt to resemble our reality, as is the case of 19th Century European realistic novels, or on the contrary, openly transcend its natural laws, as is the case of any openly anti-realistic narrations, from fairy tales to Science fiction. However, regardless of how removed the internal laws of any imaginary parallel dimension can be from those of our reality, a connection must be established between both—the imaginary universe and our own—in Order for the message to be transmitted that is to allow us to enter that imaginary world; our task, simply put, would then consist in analyzing the possible Connections between imaginary parallel dimensions and reality, either that of the author if we choose a historical/contextual approach, or our own, if we opt for a semio-structural type of analysis. Both moves—context to text and text to context—are pertinent and not necessarily mutually exclusive but rather complementary:24 the knowledge of the historical circumstances surrounding the genesis of any imaginary parallel dimension provide supplementary information, i.e., data surrounding this particular parallel dimension, while its semio-structural analysis reveals complementary information, i.e., the different semiotic Codes at play within its structure. Over time, as the original context of the sender disappears, that of the receiver keeps on evolving, and so does the message; hence the value and meaning of imaginary parallel dimensions must eventually transcend their original context in order to retain their currency: the pleasure we derive from reading Tom Sawyer cannot be directly related to our knowledge of the deep South in the 19* Century; if we are still able to enter this particular parallel dimension, it is because it contains its own time and space continuum, as an independent dimension of reality, radically different from ours but with which we can however connect. Imaginary parallel dimensions can either suffer or benefit from the irremediable disappearance of their original contexts and receivers: while time—ironically enough—has not been especially kind to Marcel Proust’s great novel, Searching for Lost Time (A la recherche du temps perdu), the endless, asphyxiating sentences of which are no longer much appreciated in this era of text messages, Perez Galdös’ short novel, The Spendthrifts (La de Bringas), generally considered as a minor work, is almost more pertinent today than when it was published in 1884, for it teils of a housewife whose love for clothes and credit causes her to bankrupt her household along with her morals: malls and credit cards have made this particular imaginary parallel dimension more informative and identifiable than ever. By studying the relationships between parallel dimensions and reality, we are able to interpret their influence upon our consciousness, both individually and collectively, a necessary, perfectly justified endeavor, which has a legitimate place within the Humanities. Naturally, in order to do so, we must