Truth in Fiction

Bibliographic Data

ID4079284
AuthorsRichard Woodward (0000-0003-0653-1788, Universitat de Barcelona, corresponding author)
Year2011
Volume6
Issue3
Pages158-167
Publication date2011-03-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenuePhilosophy Compass (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1747-9991 • E-ISSN: 1747-9991
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/j.1747-9991.2010.00367.x
OpenAlexW1641369508
LanguageEN
Citations received14
References cited20

When we engage with a work of fiction we gain knowledge about what is fictionally true in that work. Our grasp of what is true in a fiction is central to our engagement with representational works of art, and to our assessments of their merits. Of course, it is sometimes difficult to determine what is fictional - it is a good question whether the main character of American Psycho is genuinely psychotic or merely delusional, for instance. (And even in this case, our ignorance itself is crucial to how we engage with the story and assess its qualities.) But in the vast majority of cases, we have no difficulty distinguishing what is fictionally true from what is not. Every attentive reader of Bleak House knows that it is fictional that Esther is Lady Dedlock's daughter, but not fictional that Ada is the daughter of John Jarndyce. Moreover, we do not think that our judgements about what is fictional are based on guesswork. We have a folk theory of fictional truth, in the sense that we have a relatively stable framework upon which we rely when we engage with fiction, and we face the challenge of characterizing that theory systematically

Art · Daughter · Epistemology · Fiction theory · Fictional universe · GRASP · Ignorance · Linguistics · Literary criticism · Literary fiction · Literature · Psychoanalysis · Aesthetic Perception and Analysis · Computer Science · Digital Humanities and Scholarship · Narrative Theory and Analysis · Philosophy · Psychology

Tools

Open DOISci-Hub