Fiction and Narrative
Derek Matravers
Abstract
This book argues that there is no special link between fiction and imagination and that the current consensus in the philosophy of fiction—based in particular on work by Kendall Walton and Gregory Currie—is wrong. It presents an alternative account, arguing that the distinction between engaging with something via a representation (‘a representation-relation’) and engaging with something face-to-face (‘a confrontation-relation’) is fundamental and the distinction between fictions and non-fictions is relatively insignificant. It provides an alternative account of our engaging with representation ... More
This book argues that there is no special link between fiction and imagination and that the current consensus in the philosophy of fiction—based in particular on work by Kendall Walton and Gregory Currie—is wrong. It presents an alternative account, arguing that the distinction between engaging with something via a representation (‘a representation-relation’) and engaging with something face-to-face (‘a confrontation-relation’) is fundamental and the distinction between fictions and non-fictions is relatively insignificant. It provides an alternative account of our engaging with representations, whether fiction or non-fiction, based on the idea that readers construct mental models. In the course of the discussion various puzzles are solved or dissolved, including the (so-called) ‘paradox of fiction’ and the (so-called) ‘problem of imaginative resistance’. Light is also thrown on the issues of elusive narrators and on our engaging with impossible fictions. Finally, it is shown to be a mistake to link the imagination with our engaging with film.
Keywords:
Gregory Currie,
Kendall Walton,
fiction,
representation,
mental models,
paradox of fiction,
imaginative resistance,
elusive narrators,
impossible fictions,
film
Bibliographic Information
| Print publication date: 2014 |
Print ISBN-13: 9780199647019 |
| Published to Oxford Scholarship Online: May 2014 |
DOI:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199647019.001.0001 |
