Causal progenerative is a phrase coined by Hilary Dannenberg in her book Coincidence and
Counterfactuality: Plotting Time and Space in Narrative Fiction as an offshoot of Jonathan Turner’s idea of “causation as
progeneration” which “expresses paths by which things in the world, the mind,
and behavior can spring from one another.” Dannenberg uses Turner’s idea that causation is not a “unified concept” but a “cluster of different cognitive
operations” to elaborate on her “cognitive plotting” chapter. Dannenberg argues
that rather than suspending disbelief, narrative immersion is more about a
reader’s “willing construction of belief.” In regards to progeneration, Dannenberg
writes (somewhat confusingly, in parentheses) “the biological concept of progeneration as lineage is a way of
expressing the conception of time and plot as something causal and linear.”
Dannenberg uses as an example (of causal progenerative) a conversation from the
book A Room With a View in which one
character discounts another’s belief in fate by noting on the other two
involved characters’ mutual interest in Italy as a sufficient precursor for the story's coincidence.