Truth and reference in the making of fiction : a view of fictionality / Manuel García-Carpintero.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

García-Carpintero, Manuel, author.

Series:

Cambridge studies in philosophy.

Cambridge studies in philosophy

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Fiction.

Literature--Philosophy.

Literature.

Reference (Philosophy) in literature.

Truth in literature.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xii, 226 pages) : digital, PDF file(s).

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, United Kingdom : Cambridge University Press, 2025.

Summary:

A standard feature of our engagement with fictions is that we praise them as if they offer true insights on factual, psychological or evaluative matters, or criticize them as if they purport to do it but fail. But it is not so easy to make sense of this practice, since fictions traffick in made-up narratives concerning non-existing characters. This book offers the reader conceptual tools to reflect on such issues, providing an overarching, systematic account of philosophical issues concerning fictions and illustrating them with analysis of compelling examples. It asks whether fiction is defined - as John Searle and others have claimed - by mere pretense - the simulation of ordinary representational practices like assertions or requests - or whether it is defined by invitations or prescriptions to imagine. And it advances an original proposal on the nature of fictions, explaining why fictions can refer to the world and state facts about it.

Contents:

Introduction

Truth in fiction

On the mood for fiction

Fictional worlds

Fictive imagining as entertainings

Desires and emotions in response to fiction

Fictional narrators

Interpretation and ontology

Learning from fiction

Fictional characters and fictional reference.

Notes:

Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 18 Dec 2025).

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

ISBN:

1-009-29850-X

1-009-29846-1

1-009-29849-6

OCLC:

1570552779