Fiction: A Philosophical Analysis (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9780198831525)

By taking a distinctively institutional approach, Catharine Abell provides a unified solution to a wide range of philosophical problems raised by fiction. In particular, she draws attention to the epistemology of fiction, which has not yet attracted the philosophical scrutiny it warrants. There has been considerable discussion of what determines the contents of works of fiction, yet few attempts have been made to explain how audiences identify their contents, or to identify the norms governing the correct understanding and interpretation of them. This book answers both metaphysical and epistemological questions concerning fiction in a way that clarifies the relation between them: What distinguishes works of fiction from works of non-fiction? What is the nature of fictive utterances? How do audiences identify the contents of authors' fictive utterances? How does understanding a work of fiction differ from interpreting it? This book develops the first single theory to provide answers to these questions and many more.

Author: Catharine Abell
ISBN-10: 0198831528
ISBN-13: 9780198831525
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Language: English
Published: 08/11/2020
Pages: 210
Format: Hardcover
Weight: 1.00lbs
Size: 9.30h x 6.00w x 0.70d

Review Citation(s):
Choice 08/01/2021