Abstract: From the last 20 years of the 20th century, the metaphor of "world" found its way into narrative studies, resulting in a set of new narrative concepts as possible worlds, fictional worlds, and story worlds. With the help of these concepts, narrative researchers could break away from the text-focusedness in classical structuralist narratology and direct the focus of study to such problem as the ontological status of fictional narratives, the immersion effect of literary reading, and the flow of stories in transmedia channels. This article begins with an introduction of the definitions, historical development, and current situations of three major narrative theories about the world: possible world, fictional world and story world, and proceeds to of the analysis of three conceptual metaphors in these narrative theories: the world is a container, the world is a network, and the world is a shadow. The paper hopes to illuminate world metaphor's multifaced intervention of and multilayered impact on contemporary narrative theories.

Key words: the world, narrative theories, conceptual metaphor